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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38783-8.txt b/38783-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac9fe67 --- /dev/null +++ b/38783-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1932 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Women of Achievement, by Benjamin Brawley + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of Achievement + Written for the Fireside Schools + +Author: Benjamin Brawley + +Release Date: February 7, 2012 [EBook #38783] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + +Women of Achievement + +Written for The Fireside Schools + +Under the auspices of the + +Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society + +by + +BENJAMIN BRAWLEY + +Dean of Morehouse College + + +Author of "A Short History of the American Negro," "The Negro in +Literature and Art," "Your Negro Neighbor," Etc. + + + + + Copyright, 1919 + by the + Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. Introduction.--The Negro Woman in American Life. + + II. Harriet Tubman. + + III. Nora Gordon. + + IV. Meta Warrick Fuller. + + V. Mary McLeod Bethune. + + VI. Mary Church Terrell. + + + + +[Illustration: JOANNA P. MOORE] + + + + +THE FIRESIDE SCHOOLS + + +The work of the Fireside Schools was begun in 1884 by Joanna P. Moore, +who was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1832, and +who died in Selma, Alabama, April 15, 1916. For fifty years Miss Moore +was well known as an earnest worker for the betterment of the Negro +people of the South. Beginning in the course of the Civil War, at Island +No. 10, in November, 1863, she gave herself untiringly to the work to +which she felt called. In 1864 she ministered to a group of people at +Helena, Arkansas. In 1868 she went to Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help +the Friends in an orphan asylum. While she was at one time left +temporarily in charge of the institution cholera broke out, and eleven +children died within one week; but she remained at her post until the +fury of the plague was abated. She spent nine years in the vicinity of +New Orleans, reading the Bible to those who could not read, writing +letters in search of lost ones, and especially caring for the helpless +old women that she met. In 1877 the Woman's American Baptist Home +Mission Society gave her its first commission. + +The object of the Fireside Schools is to secure the daily prayerful +study of God's word by having this read to parents and children +together; to teach parents and children, husbands and wives, their +respective duties one to another; to supply homes with good reading +matter; and also to inculcate temperance, industry, neighborly +helpfulness, and greater attention to the work of the church. The +publication of _Hope_, the organ of the Fireside Schools, was begun in +1885. Closely associated with the Schools are the Bible Bands, a single +band consisting of any two or three people in the same church or +neighborhood who meet to review the lessons in _Hope_ and to report and +plan Christian work. All the activities are under the general +supervision of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, though +the special Fireside School headquarters are at 612 Gay Street, +Nashville, Tennessee. The present work is dedicated to the memory of +Joanna P. Moore, and to the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily +numbered by the thousands, who are engaged in the work of the Fireside +Schools. + + + + +I. + +INTRODUCTION. + +The Negro Woman in American Life + + +In the history of the Negro race in America no more heroic work has been +done than that performed by the Negro woman. The great responsibilities +of life have naturally drifted to the men; but who can measure the +patience, the love, the self-sacrifice of those who in a more humble way +have labored for their people and even in the midst of war striven most +earnestly to keep the home-fires burning? Even before emancipation a +strong character had made herself felt in more than one community; and +to-day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions, +business, literature, music, or even the professions and scholarship, +the Negro woman is making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that +for so many years now has been struggling to the light. + +It was but natural that those should first become known who were +interested in the uplift of the race. If we except such an unusual and +specially gifted spirit as Phillis Wheatley, we shall find that those +who most impressed the American public before the Civil War were the +ones who best identified themselves with the general struggle for +freedom. Outstanding was the famous lecturer, Sojourner Truth. This +remarkable woman was born of slave parents in the state of New York +about 1798. She recalled vividly in her later years the cold, damp +cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the family to which she +belonged, and where she was taught by her mother to repeat the Lord's +Prayer and to trust God at all times. When in the course of the process +of gradual emancipation in New York she became legally free in 1827, her +master refused to comply with the law. She left, but was pursued and +found. Rather than have her go back, however, a friend paid for her +services for the rest of the year. Then there came an evening when, +searching for one of her children that had been stolen and sold, she +found herself without a resting-place for the night. A Quaker family, +however, gave her lodging. Afterwards she went to New York City, joined +a Methodist church, and worked hard to improve her condition. Later, +having decided to leave New York for a lecture tour through the East, +she made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a friend that +her name was no longer _Isabella_, as she had been known, but +_Sojourner_. Afterwards, as she herself said, finding that she needed +two names she adopted _Truth_, because it was intended that she should +declare the truth to the people. She went on her way, lecturing to +people wherever she found them assembled and being entertained in many +aristocratic homes. She was entirely untaught in the schools, but tall +and of commanding presence, original, witty, and always suggestive. The +stories told about her are numberless; but she was ever moved by an +abiding trust in God, and she counted among her friends many of the most +distinguished Americans of her time. By her tact and her gift of song +she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith she won many friends +for the anti-slavery cause. + +It was impossible of course for any single woman to carry on the +tradition of such a character as Sojourner Truth. She belonged to a +distinct epoch in the country's history, one in which the rights of the +Negro and the rights of woman in general were frequently discussed on +the same platform; and she passed--so far as her greatest influence was +concerned--with her epoch. In more recent years those women who have +represented the race before the larger public have been persons of more +training and culture, though it has been practically impossible for any +one to equal the native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in +recent years have been Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Mary Church +Terrell. The spread of culture, however, and the general force of the +social emphasis have more and more led those who were interested in +social betterment to come together so that there might be the greater +effect from united effort. Thus we have had developing in almost all of +our cities and towns various clubs working for the good of the race, +whether the immediate aim was literary culture, an orphanage, an old +folks' home, the protection of working girls, or something else +similarly noble. Prominent among the pioneers in such work were Mrs. +Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, and Mrs. John T. Cook, of +Washington, D. C. No one can record exactly how much has been +accomplished by these organizations; in fact, the clubs range all the +way in effectiveness from one that is a dominating force in its town to +one that is struggling to get started. The result of the work, however, +would in any case sum up with an astonishing total. A report from +Illinois, fairly representative of the stronger work, mentioned the +following activities: "The Cairo hospital, fostered and under the +supervision of the Yates Club of Cairo; the Anna Field Home for Girls, +Peoria; Lincoln Old Folks' and Orphans' Home, founded by Mrs. Eva Monroe +and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield; the Home for Aged and +Infirm Colored People, Chicago, founded by Mrs. Gabrella Smith and +others; the Amanda Smith Orphans' Home, Harvey; the Phillis Wheatley +Home for Wage-Earning Girls, of Chicago." In Alabama the State +Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has established and is supporting a +reformatory at Mt. Meigs for Negro boys, and the women are very +enthusiastic about the work. A beautiful and well ordered home for Negro +girls was established a few years ago in Virginia. Of the White Rose +Mission of New York we are told that it "has done much good. A large +number of needy ones have found shelter within its doors and have been +able to secure work of all kinds. This club has a committee to meet the +incoming steamers from the South and see that young women entering the +city as strangers are directed to proper homes." All such work is +touching in its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association +of Colored Women's Clubs was founded in 1896. The organization has +become stronger and stronger until it is now a powerful and effective +one with hundreds of members. One of its recent activities has been the +purchase of the home of Frederick Douglass at Anacostia, D. C. + +In education, church life, and missions--special forms of social +service--we have only to look around us to see what the Negro woman is +accomplishing. Not only is she bearing the brunt of common school +education for the race; in more than one instance a strong character, +moved to do something, has started on a career of success a good +secondary or industrial school. Representative are the Voorhees Normal +and Industrial School, at Denmark, S. C., founded by Elizabeth C. +Wright; the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, +founded by Mrs. M. M. Bethune; and the Mt. Meigs Institute, Mt. Meigs, +Alabama, founded by Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy for its special +missionary emphasis is the National Training School of Washington, of +which Miss Nannie H. Burroughs is the head. One of the most important +recent developments in education has been the appointment of a number +of young women as supervisors in county schools under the terms of the +will of Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker lady of Philadelphia who left a +considerable sum of money for the improvement of the rural schools of +the South. In church work we all know the extent to which women have had +to bear the burden not only of the regular activities but also of the +numerous "rallies" that still so unfortunately afflict our churches. +Deserving of special mention in connection with social service is the +work of those who have labored under the auspices of the Young Women's +Christian Association, which has done so much for the moral well-being +of the great camps in the war. In foreign mission work one of the +educational institutions sustained primarily by Northern Baptist +agencies--Spelman Seminary--stands out with distinct prominence. Not +only has Spelman sent to Africa several of her daughters from this +country, the first one being Nora Gordon in 1889; she has also educated +several who have come to her from Africa, the first being Lena Clark, +and for these the hope has ever been that they would return to their own +country for their largest and most mature service. + +In the realm of business the Negro woman has stood side by side with her +husband in the rise to higher things. In almost every instance in which +a man has prospered, investigation will show that his advance was very +largely due to the faith, the patience, and the untiring effort of his +wife. Dr. B. T. Washington, in his book _The Negro in Business_, gave +several examples. One of the outstanding instances was in the story of +Junius G. Groves, famous potato grower of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man +moved from his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time of the +well-known "Exodus" of 1879, a migration movement which was even more +voluntary on the part of the Negro than the recent removal to the North +on the part of so many, this latter movement being in so many ways a +result of war conditions. Mr. Groves in course of time became a man of +large responsibilities and means. It is most interesting, however, to go +back to his early days of struggle. We read as follows: "Soon after +getting the crop planted Mr. Groves decided to marry. When he reached +this decision he had but seventy-five cents in cash, and had to borrow +enough to satisfy the demands of the law. But he knew well the worth and +common sense of the woman he was to marry. She was as poor in worldly +goods as himself; but their poverty did not discourage them in their +plans. * * * * During the whole season they worked with never-tiring +energy, early and late; with the result that when the crop had been +harvested and all debts paid they had cleared $125. Notwithstanding +their lack of many necessaries of life, to say nothing of comforts, they +decided to invest $50 of their earnings in a lot in Kansas City, Kansas. +They paid $25 for a milk cow, and kept the remaining $50 to be used in +the making of another crop." In the course of a few years Mr. Groves, +with the help of his wife, now the mother of a large family, gathered in +one year hundreds of thousands of bushels of white potatoes, surpassing +all other growers in the world. Similarly was the success of E. C. +Berry, a hotel-keeper of Athens, Ohio, due to his wife. "At night, after +his guests had fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around and gather +up their clothes and take them to his wife, who would add buttons which +were lacking, repair rents, and press the garments, after which Mr. +Berry would replace them in the guests' rooms. Guests who had received +such treatment returned again and brought their friends with them." In +course of time Mr. and Mrs. Berry came to own the leading hotel in +Athens, one of fifty rooms and of special favor with commercial +travelers. + +Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely. It is not only in such +spheres that the worth of the Negro woman has been shown, however. +Daily, in thousands of homes, in little stores and on humble farms, +effort just as heroic has been exerted, though the result is not always +so evident. On their own initiative also women are now engaging in large +enterprises. The most conspicuous example of material success is +undoubtedly Mme. C. J. Walker, of the Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing +Company, of Indianapolis and New York, a business that is now conducted +on a large scale and in accordance with the best business methods of +America. Important also in this connection is the very great +contribution that Negro women--very often those without education and +opportunity--are making in the ordinary industrial life of the country. +According to the census of 1910, 1,047,146, or 52 per cent. of those at +work, were either farmers or farm laborers, and 28 per cent. more were +either cooks or washerwomen. In other words, a total of exactly 80 per +cent. were doing some of the hardest and at the same time some of the +most necessary work in our home and industrial life. These are workers +whose worth has never been fully appreciated by the larger public, and +who needed the heavy demands of the great war to call attention to the +actual value of the service they were rendering. + +The changes in fact brought about within the last few years, largely as +a result of war conditions, are remarkable. As Mary E. Jackson, writing +in the _Crisis_, has said: "Indiana reports [Negro women] in glass +works; in Ohio they are found on the night shifts of glass works; they +have gone into the pottery works in Virginia; wood-working plants and +lumber yards have called for their help in Tennessee." She also quotes +Rachel S. Gallagher, of Cleveland, Ohio, as saying of the Negro women in +that city: "We find them on power sewing-machines, making caps, waists, +bags, and mops; we find them doing pressing and various hand operations +in these same shops. They are employed in knitting factories as winders, +in a number of laundries on mangles of every type, and in sorting and +marking. They are in paper box factories doing both hand and machine +work, in button factories on the button machines, in packing houses +packing meat, in railroad yards wiping and cleaning engines, and doing +sorting in railroad shops. One of our workers recently found two colored +girls on a knotting machine in a bed spring factory, putting the knots +in the wire springs." + +In the professions, such as medicine and law, and in scholarship as +well, the Negro woman has blazed a path. One year after Oberlin College +in Ohio was founded in 1833, thirty years before the issuing of the +Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took the advanced ground of +admitting Negro men and women on equal terms with other students. Of the +Northern colleges and universities Oberlin still leads in the number of +its Negro women graduates, but in recent years other such institutions +as Radcliffe, Wellesley, Columbia, and Chicago have been represented in +an increasing number by those who have finished their work creditably +and even with distinction in many instances. More and more each year are +young women at these institutions going forward to the attainment of the +higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine we recall the +work in the war of the Negro woman in the related profession of nursing. +It was only after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine +opportunity in Red Cross work, but she at once vindicated herself. In +the legal profession she has not only been admitted to practice in +various places, but has also been appointed to public office. It must be +understood that such positions as those just remarked are not secured +without a struggle, but all told they indicate that the race through its +womanhood is more and more taking part in the general life of the +country. + +In keeping with the romantic quality of the race it was but natural that +from the first there should have been special effort at self-expression +in literature, music, and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to +strike the public imagination was Phillis Wheatley, who even as a young +girl wrote acceptable verse. Her _Poems on Various Subjects_ published +in 1773 at once attracted attention, and it was fitting that the first +Negro woman to become distinguished in America should be one of +outstanding piety and nobility of soul. Just a few years before the +Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins, better known as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper, +entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry. At the present +time attention centers especially upon Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, who +early in 1918 produced in _The Heart of a Woman_ a little volume of +delicate and poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and +greater things are expected, as she not only has the temperament of an +artist but has also undergone a period of severe training in her chosen +field. In the wider field of prose--including especially stories, +essays, and sketches--Mrs. Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson is prominent. In +1899 she produced _The Goodness of St. Rocque, and other stories_, and +since then has continued her good work in various ways. The whole field +of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing to many of the +younger women, and one that with all its difficulties and lack of +financial return does offer some genuine reward to the candidate who is +willing to work hard and who does not seek a short cut to fame. + +In music the race has produced more women of distinction than in any +other field. This was natural, for the Negro voice is world famous. The +pity is that all too frequently some of the most capable young women +have not had the means to cultivate their talents and hence have fallen +by the wayside. Some day it is to be hoped that a great philanthropist +will endow a real conservatory at which such persons may find some +genuine opportunity and encouragement in their development in their days +of struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, however, there have been +singers who have risen to very high things in their art. Even before the +Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor +Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This artist, born in +Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared for by a Quaker +lady. The young woman did not soon reveal her gift to her friend, +thinking that it might be frowned upon as something too worldly. Her +guardian learned of it by accident, however, and one day surprised her +by asking, "Elizabeth, is it true that thee can sing?" "Yes," replied +the young woman in confusion. "Let me hear thee." And Elizabeth sang; +and her friend, realizing that she had a voice of the first quality, +proceeded to give her the best instruction that it was possible to get. +Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield had a marvelous voice embracing twenty-seven +notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to the highest +soprano. A voice with a range of more than three octaves naturally +attracted much attention in both England and America, and comparisons +with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her great fame, were frequent. +In the next generation arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the +first rank, and one who by her arias and operatic work generally, as +well as by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent +of Europe as well as in England and America. The careers of some later +singers are so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; some in +fact may still be heard. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on the +period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work at +its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest +enthusiasm. In a series of temperance meetings in New York she sang for +ninety consecutive nights, with never-failing effect, one song, "Six +Feet of Earth Make Us All One Size." Her voice exhibited a compass of +three octaves, but even more important than its range was its remarkable +sympathetic quality. Early in the last decade of the century appeared +also Mrs. Sissieretta Jones, whose voice at once commanded attention as +one of unusual richness and volume, and as one exhibiting especially the +plaintive quality ever present in the typical Negro voice. + +At the present time there are several promising singers; and there are +also those who in various ways are working for the general advancement +of the race in music. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent +as a concert soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the +work of teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice. +Possessed of a splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit +of three years of foreign study and generally inspired many younger +singers or performers. Prominent among many excellent pianists is Mrs. +Hazel Harrison Anderson, who also has studied much abroad and who has +appeared in many noteworthy recitals. Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, of Boston, a +concert pianist, has within the last few years given several excellent +lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music. + +As between painting and sculpture the women of the race have shown a +decided preference for sculpture. While there are some students of +promise, no woman has as yet achieved distinction on work of really +professional quality in the realm of painting. On the other hand there +have been three or four sculptors of genuine merit. As early as 1865 +Edmonia Lewis began to attract attention by her busts of prominent +people. Within the last few years the work of Mrs. May Howard Jackson, +of Washington, has attracted the attention of the discerning; and that +of Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller is reserved for special comment. + +Any such review as this naturally has its limitations. We can indicate +only a few of the outstanding individuals here and there. At least +enough has been said, however, to show that the Negro woman is making +her way at last into every phase of noble endeavor. In the pages that +follow we shall attempt to set forth at somewhat greater length the life +and work of a few of those whose achievement has been most signal and +whose interest in their sisters has been unfailing. + + + + +[Illustration: + +IN MEMORY OF + +HARRIET TUBMAN + +BORN A SLAVE IN MARYLAND ABOUT 1821 DIED IN AUBURN, N.Y. MARCH 10TH, +1913 + +CALLED THE "MOSES" OF HER PEOPLE. DURING THE CIVIL WAR, WITH RARE +COURAGE, SHE LED OVER THREE HUNDRED NEGROES UP FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, +AND RENDERED INVALUABLE SERVICE AS NURSE AND SPY. + +WITH IMPLICIT TRUST IN GOD SHE BRAVED EVERY DANGER AND OVERCAME EVERY +OBSTACLE, WITHAL SHE POSSESSED EXTRAORDINARY FORESIGHT AND JUDGMENT SO +THAT SHE TRUTHFULLY SAID-- + +"ON MY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD I NEBBER RUN MY TRAIN OFF DE TRACK AND I +NEBBER LOS' A PASSENGER." + + * * * * * + + THIS TABLET IS ERECTED + BY THE CITIZENS OF AUBURN + ·1914· + +Used through courtesy of John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry and Iron +Works, New York, N. Y.] + + + + +HARRIET TUBMAN + + + + +II. + +HARRIET TUBMAN[A] + + +Greatest of all the heroines of anti-slavery was Harriet Tubman. This +brave woman not only escaped from bondage herself, but afterwards made +nineteen distinct trips to the South, especially to Maryland, and +altogether aided more than three hundred souls in escaping from their +fetters. + +Araminta Ross, better known by the Christian name _Harriet_ that she +adopted, and her married name of _Tubman_, was born about 1821 in +Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, the daughter of +Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both of whom were slaves, but who were +privileged to be able to live their lives in a state of singular +fidelity. Harriet had ten brothers and sisters, not less than three of +whom she rescued from slavery; and in 1857, at great risk to herself, +she also took away to the North her aged father and mother. + +When Harriet was not more than six years old she was taken away from her +mother and sent ten miles away to learn the trade of weaving. Among +other things she was set to the task of watching muskrat traps, which +work compelled her to wade much in water. Once she was forced to work +when she was already ill with the measles. She became very sick, and her +mother now persuaded her master to let the girl come home for a while. + +Soon after Harriet entered her teens she suffered a misfortune that +embarrassed her all the rest of her life. She had been hired out as a +field hand. It was the fall of the year and the slaves were busy at such +tasks as husking corn and cleaning up wheat. One of them ran away. He +was found. The overseer swore that he should be whipped and called on +Harriet and some others that happened to be near to help tie him. She +refused, and as the slave made his escape she placed herself in a door +to help to stop pursuit of him. The overseer caught up a two-pound +weight and threw it at the fugitive; but it missed its mark and struck +Harriet a blow on the head that was almost fatal. Her skull was broken +and from this resulted a pressure on her brain which all her life left +her subject to fits of somnolency. Sometimes these would come upon her +in the midst of a conversation or any task at which she might be +engaged; then after a while the spell would pass and she could go on as +before. + +After Harriet recovered sufficiently from her blow she lived for five or +six years in the home of one John Stewart, working at first in the house +but afterwards hiring her time. She performed the most arduous labor in +order to get the fifty or sixty dollars ordinarily exacted of a woman in +her situation. She drove oxen, plowed, cut wood, and did many other such +things. With her firm belief in Providence, in her later years she +referred to this work as a blessing in disguise as it gave her the firm +constitution necessary for the trials and hardships that were before +her. Sometimes she worked for her father, who was a timber inspector and +superintended the cutting and hauling of large quantities of timber for +the Baltimore ship-yards. Her regular task in this employment was the +cutting of half a cord of wood a day. + +About 1844 Harriet was married to a free man named John Tubman. She had +no children. Two years after her escape in 1849 she traveled back to +Maryland for her husband, only to find him married to another woman and +no longer caring to live with her. She felt the blow keenly, but did not +despair and more and more gave her thought to what was to be the great +work of her life. + +It was not long after her marriage that Harriet began seriously to +consider the matter of escape from bondage. Already in her mind her +people were the Israelites in the land of Egypt, and far off in the +North _somewhere_ was the land of Canaan. In 1849 the master of her +plantation died, and word passed around that at any moment she and two +of her brothers were to be sold to the far South. Harriet, now +twenty-four years old, resolved to put her long cherished dreams into +effect. She held a consultation with her brothers and they decided to +start with her at once, that very night, for the North. She could not go +away, however, without giving some intimation of her purpose to the +friends she was leaving behind. As it was not advisable for slaves to be +seen too much talking together, she went among her old associates +singing as follows: + + When dat ar ol' chariot comes + I'm gwine to leabe you; + I'm boun' for de Promised Land; + Frien's, I'm gwine to leabe you. + + I'm sorry, frien's, to leabe you; + Farewell! oh, farewell! + But I'll meet you in de mornin'; + Farewell! oh, farewell! + + I'll meet you in de mornin' + When you reach de Promised Land; + On de oder side of Jordan, + For I'm boun' for de Promised Land. + +The brothers started with her; but the way was unknown, the North was +far away, and they were constantly in terror of recapture. They turned +back, and Harriet, after watching their retreating forms, again fixed +her eyes on the north star. "I had reasoned dis out in my min'," said +she; "there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If +I could not have one, I would have de other, for no man should take me +alive. I would fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and +when de time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me." + +"And so without money, and without friends," says Mrs. Bradford, "she +started on through unknown regions; walking by night, hiding by day, but +always conscious of an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by +night, under the guidance of which she journeyed or rested. Without +knowing whom to trust, or how near the pursuers might be, she carefully +felt her way, and by her native cunning, or by God-given wisdom she +managed to apply to the right people for food, and sometimes for +shelter; though often her bed was only the cold ground, and her watchers +the stars of night. After many long and weary days of travel, she found +that she had passed the magic line which then divided the land of +bondage from the land of freedom." At length she came to Philadelphia, +where she found work and the opportunity to earn a little money. It was +at this time, in 1851, after she had been employed for some months, that +she went back to Maryland for her husband only to find that he had not +been true. + +In December, 1850, she had visited Baltimore and brought away a sister +and two children. A few months afterwards she took away a brother and +two other men. In December, 1851, she led out a party of eleven, among +them being another brother and his wife. With these she journeyed to +Canada, for the Fugitive Slave Law was now in force and, as she quaintly +said, there was no safety except "under the paw of the British Lion." +The winter, however, was hard on the poor fugitives, who unused to the +climate of Canada, had to chop wood in the forests in the snow. Often +they were frost-bitten, hungry, and almost always poorly clad. But +Harriet was caring for them. She kept house for her brother, and the +fugitives boarded with her. She begged for them and prayed for them, and +somehow got them through the hard winter. In the spring she returned to +the States, as usual working in hotels and families as a cook. In 1852 +she once more went to Maryland, this time bringing away nine fugitives. + +It must not be supposed that those who started on the journey northward +were always strong-spirited characters. The road was rough and attended +by dangers innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives grew faint-hearted and +wanted to turn back. Then would come into play the pistol that Harriet +always carried with her. "Dead niggers tell no tales," said she, +pointing it at them; "you go on or die!" By this heroic method she +forced many to go onward and win the goal of freedom. + +Unfailing was Harriet Tubman's confidence in God. A customary form of +prayer for her was, "O Lord, you've been with me in six troubles; be +with me in the seventh." On one of her journeys she came with a party of +fugitives to the home of a Negro who had more than once assisted her and +whose house was one of the regular stations on the so-called Underground +Railroad. Leaving her party a little distance away Harriet went to the +door and gave the peculiar rap that was her regular signal. Not meeting +with a ready response, she knocked several times. At length a window was +raised and a white man demanded roughly what she wanted. When Harriet +asked for her friend she was informed that he had been obliged to leave +for assisting Negroes. The situation was dangerous. Day was breaking and +something had to be done at once. A prayer revealed to Harriet a place +of refuge. Outside of the town she remembered that there was a little +island in a swamp, with much tall grass upon it. Hither she conducted +her party, carrying in a basket two babies that had been drugged. All +were cold and hungry in the wet grass; still Harriet prayed and waited +for deliverance. How relief came she never knew; she felt that it was +not necessarily her business to know. After they had waited through the +day, however, at dusk there came slowly along the pathway on the edge of +the swamp a man clad in the garb of a Quaker. He seemed to be talking to +himself, but Harriet's sharp ears caught the words: "My wagon stands in +the barnyard of the next farm across the way. The horse is in the +stable; the harness hangs on a nail;" and then the man was gone. When +night came Harriet stole forth to the place designated, and found not +only the wagon but also abundant provisions in it, so that the whole +party was soon on its way rejoicing. In the next town dwelt a Quaker +whom Harriet knew and who readily took charge of the horse and wagon for +her. + +Naturally the work of such a woman could not long escape the attention +of the abolitionists. She became known to Thomas Garrett, the +great-hearted Quaker of Wilmington, who aided not less than three +thousand fugitives to escape, and also to Grit Smith, Wendell Phillips, +William H. Seward, F. B. Sanborn, and many other notable men interested +in the emancipation of the Negro. From time to time she was supplied +with money, but she never spent this for her own use, setting it aside +in case of need on the next one of her journeys. In her earlier years, +however, before she became known, she gave of her own slender means for +the work. + +Between 1852 and 1857 she made but one or two journeys, because of the +increasing vigilance of slaveholders and the Fugitive Slave Law. Great +rewards were offered for her capture and she was several times on the +point of being taken, but always escaped by her shrewd wit and what she +considered warnings from heaven. While she was intensely practical, she +was also a most firm believer in dreams. In 1857 she made her most +venturesome journey, this time taking with her to the North her old +parents who were no longer able to walk such distances as she was forced +to go by night. Accordingly she had to hire a wagon for them, and it +took all her ingenuity to get them through Maryland and Delaware. At +length, however, she got them to Canada, where they spent the winter. As +the climate was too rigorous, however, she afterwards brought them down +to New York, and settled them in a home in Auburn, N. Y., that she had +purchased on very reasonable terms from Secretary Seward. Somewhat later +a mortgage on the place had to be lifted and Harriet now made a +noteworthy visit to Boston, returning with a handsome sum toward the +payment of her debt. At this time she met John Brown more than once, +seems to have learned something of his plans, and after the raid at +Harper's Ferry and the execution of Brown she glorified him as a hero, +her veneration even becoming religious. Her last visit to Maryland was +made in December, 1860, and in spite of the agitated condition of the +country and the great watchfulness of slaveholders she brought away with +her seven fugitives, one of them an infant. + +After the war Harriet Tubman made Auburn her home, establishing there a +refuge for aged Negroes. She married again, so that she is sometimes +referred to as Harriet Tubman Davis. She died at a very advanced age +March 10, 1913. On Friday, June 12, 1914, a tablet in her honor was +unveiled at the Auditorium in Albany. It was provided by the Cayuga +County Historical Association, Dr. Booker T. Washington was the chief +speaker of the occasion, and the ceremonies were attended by a great +crowd of people. + +The tributes to this heroic woman were remarkable. Wendell Phillips said +of her: "In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels, +who have done more for the loyal cause since the war began, and few men +who did before that time more for the colored race than our fearless and +most sagacious friend, Harriet." F. B. Sanborn wrote that what she did +"could scarcely be credited on the best authority." William H. Seward, +who labored, though unsuccessfully, to get a pension for her granted by +Congress, consistently praised her noble spirit. Abraham Lincoln gave +her ready audience and lent a willing ear to whatever she had to say. +Frederick Douglass wrote to her: "The difference between us is very +marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause +has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step +of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I +have wrought in the day--you in the night. I have had the applause of +the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the +multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few +trembling, scarred, and footsore bondmen and women, whom you have led +out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt 'God bless you' has +been your only reward." + +Of such mould was Harriet Tubman, philanthropist and patriot, bravest +and noblest of all the heroines of freedom. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] While this sketch is drawn from various sources, I feel specially +indebted to Sarah H. Bradford's "Harriet, the Moses of Her People." This +valuable work in turn includes a scholarly article taken from the +"Boston Commonwealth" of 1863 and loaned to Mrs. Bradford by F. R. +Sanborn. This article is really the foundation of the sketch.--B. B. + + + + +[Illustration: NORA A. GORDON] + + + + +NORA GORDON + + + + +III. + +NORA GORDON + + +This is the story of a young woman who had not more than ordinary +advantages, but who in our own day by her love for Christ and her zeal +in his service was swept from her heroic labor into martyrdom. + +When Nora Gordon went from Spelman Seminary as a missionary to the +Congo, she had the hope that in some little way she might be used for +the furtherance of the Master's kingdom. She could hardly have foreseen +that she would start in her beloved school a glorious tradition; and +still less could she have seen the marvellous changes taking place in +the Africa of the present. She had boundless faith, however,--faith in +God and in the ultimate destiny of her people. In that faith she lived, +and for that faith she died. + +Nora Antonia Gordon was born in Columbus, Georgia, August 25, 1866. +After receiving her early education in the public schools of La Grange, +in the fall of 1882 she came to Spelman Seminary. It was not long before +her life became representative of the transforming power of +Christianity. Being asked, "Do you love Christ?" she answered "Yes"; but +when there came the question, "Are you a Christian?" she replied "No." +It was not long, however, before she gained firmer faith, and two months +after her entrance at Spelman she was definitely converted. Now followed +seven years of intense activity and growth--of study, of summer +teaching, of talks before temperance societies, of service of any +possible sort for the Master. She brought to Christ every girl who was +placed to room with her. A classmate afterwards testified of her that +the girls always regarded Nora somewhat differently from the others. She +was the counsellor of her friends, ever ready with sweet words of +comfort, and yet ever a cheerful companion. In one home in which she +lived for a while she asked the privilege of having prayer. The man of +the house at first refused to kneel and the woman seemed not interested. +In course of time, however, the wife was won and then the man also +knelt. At another time she wrote, "Twenty-six of my scholars were +baptized to-day;" and a little later she said, "Ten more have been +added." + +In 1885 Nora Gordon completed her course in the Industrial Department, +in 1886 the Elementary Normal, and in 1888 the Higher Normal Course. Her +graduation essay was on the rather old and sophomoric subject, "The +Influence of Woman on National Character;" but in the intensity of her +convictions and her words there was nothing ordinary. She said in part: +"Let no woman feel that life to her means simply living; but let her +rather feel that she has a special mission assigned her, which none +other of God's creatures can perform. It may be that she is placed in +some rude little hut as mother and wife; if so, she can dignify her +position by turning every hut into a palace, and bringing not only her +own household, but the whole community, into the sunlight of God's love. +Such women are often unnoticed by the world in general, and do not +receive the appreciation due them; yet we believe such may be called +God's chosen agents." Finally, "we feel that woman is under a twofold +obligation to consecrate her whole being to Christ. Our people are to be +educated and christianized and the heathen brought home to God. Woman +must take the lead in this great work." + +After her graduation in 1888 Nora Gordon was appointed to teach in the +public schools of Atlanta. She soon resigned this work, however, in the +contemplation of the great mission of her life. The secretary of the +Society of the West wrote to Spelman to inquire if there was any one who +could go to assist Miss Fleming, a missionary at work in Palabala in the +Congo. Four names were sent, and the choice of the board was Nora A. +Gordon. The definite appointment came in January, 1889. On Sunday +evening, February 17, an impressive missionary service was held in the +chapel at Spelman. Interesting items were given by the students with +reference to the slave-trade in East Africa and the efforts being made +for its suppression, also with reference to Mohammedanism, the spiritual +awakening among the Zulus, and the mission stations established, +especially those on the Congo. Several letters were read, one from Miss +Fleming exciting the most intense interest; and throughout the meeting +was the thought that Nora Gordon was also soon to go to Africa. On March +6 a farewell service was held, and attended by a great crowd of people, +among them the whole family of the consecrated young woman; and she +sailed March 16, 1889. + +First of all she went to London, tarrying at the Missionary Training +Institute conducted by Rev. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. Under date +April 11 she wrote: "It has been so trying to remain here so long +waiting. I feel that this is the dear Lord's first lesson to me in +patience. I am thankful to say that I feel profited by my stay. * * * * +Yesterday coming from the city we saw a number of flags hanging across +the street, and among them was the United States flag. Never before did +the Stars and Stripes seem so beautiful. I am glad Miss Grover put one +in my box. * * * * I do praise God for every step I get nearer to my +future home. We expect to sail next Wednesday, April 17, from Rotterdam +on the steamer _African_, Dutch line. We hope to get to the Congo in +three weeks." + +For two years she labored at Palabala, frequently writing letters home +and occasionally sending back to her beloved Spelman a box of curios. +Said she of those among whom she worked: "When the people are first +gathered into a chapel for school or religious services, it is sad and +amusing to see how hard they try to know just what to do, a number +sitting with their backs to the preacher or teacher. When the teacher +reproves a child, every man, woman, and child feels it his or her duty +to yell out too at the offender and tell him to obey the teacher. Often +in the midst of a sermon a man in the congregation will call out to the +preacher, 'Take away your lies,' or 'We do not believe you,' or 'How can +this or that be?' One of the first workers, after speaking to a crowd of +heathen, asked them all to close their eyes and bow their heads while he +would pray to God. When the missionary had finished his prayer and +opened his eyes, every person had stealthily left the place." Then +followed a detail of the atrocities in the Congo and of the encounters +between the natives and the Belgian officers, and last of all came the +pertinent comment: "The Congo missionary's work is twofold. He must +civilize, as well as Christianize, the people." + +Early in 1891 Nora Gordon, sadly in need of rest and refreshment, went +from Palabala for a little stay at Lukungu. Hither had come Clara A. +Howard, Spelman's second representative, under appointment of the +Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the East. Lukungu is a station two +hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of the Congo, in a populous +district, and was the center from which numerous other schools and +churches sprang. The work was in charge of Mr. Hoste, an Englishman, +who, when Miss Gordon wrote of him in 1894, had spent ten years on the +Congo without going home. Other men were associated with him, while the +elementary schools, the care of the boys and girls, and work among the +women, naturally fell to the women missionaries. A little later in 1891 +Nora Gordon left Palabala permanently to engage in the work at Lukungu. +Under date September 25 she wrote to her friends back home: "Doubtless +Clara has told you of my change to this place. You can not imagine how +glad we are to be together here. I have charge of the printing-office +and help in the afternoon school. I am well, happy, and am enjoying my +work. In the office I have few conveniences and really not the things we +need. Mr. Hoste has written the first arithmetic in this language and I +am now putting it up. I was obliged to stop work on it to-day because my +figures in type gave out, and you know we have no shops in this land. +My boys in the office are doing nicely." + +Thus she worked on for two years more--hoping, praying, trusting. By +1893 her health was in such condition that it was deemed wise for her to +return to America. So she did, and she brought back two native girls +with her. All the while, however, her chief thought was upon the work to +which she had given herself, and she constantly looked forward to the +time when she might be able to go back to Africa. In 1895 she became the +wife of Rev. S. C. Gordon, who was connected with the English Baptist +Mission at Stanley Pool. She sailed with her husband from Boston in July +and reached the Congo again in August. The station was unique. It was an +old and well established mission, the center of several others in the +surrounding country. It had excellent brick houses, broad avenues and +good fruit-trees, and the students were above the average in +intelligence. But soon the shadow fell. Nora Gordon herself saw much of +the well known Belgian atrocities in the Congo. She saw houses burned +and the natives themselves driven out by the state officials. They +crossed over into the French Congo; but hither Protestants were not +allowed to come to preach to them. In spite of the great heartache, +however, and declining health the heroic woman worked on, giving to +those for whom she labored her tenderest love. Seven months after the +death of her second child a change was again deemed necessary, and she +once more turned her face homeward. After two months in Belgium and +England she came again to America, and to Spelman. But her strength was +now all spent. She died at Spelman January 26, 1901. She was only +thirty-four; but who can measure in years the love and faith, the hope +and sorrow, of such a life? + +Nora Gordon started a tradition, Spelman's richest heritage. Three other +graduates followed her. Clara Howard was in course of time forced by the +severe fevers to give up her work, and she now labors at home in the +service of her Alma Mater. Ada Jackson became the second wife of Rev. S. +C. Gordon and also died in service. Emma B. DeLany was commissioned in +1900 and still labors--in recent years with larger and larger +success--in Liberia. Within two or three years of Nora Gordon's return +in 1893, moreover, not less than five native African girls had come to +Spelman. The spirit still abides, and if the way were just a little +clearer doubtless many other graduates would go. Even as it is, however, +the blessing to the school has been illimitable. + + * * * * * + +Such have been the workers, such the pioneers. To what end is the love, +the labor--the loneliness, the yearning? + +It is now nearly five hundred years since a prince of Portugal began the +slave-trade on the west coast of Africa. Within two hundred years all of +the leading countries of western Europe had joined in the iniquitous +traffic, and when England in 1713 drew up with France the Peace of +Utrecht she deemed the slave-trade of such importance that she insisted +upon an article that gave her a practical monopoly of it. Before the end +of the eighteenth century, however, the voice of conscience began to be +heard in England, and science also began to be interested in the great +undeveloped continent lying to the South. It remained for the work of +David Livingstone, however, in the middle of the nineteenth century +really to reveal Africa to the rest of the world. This intrepid explorer +and missionary in a remarkable series of journeys not only traversed +the continent from the extreme South to Loanda on the West Coast and +Quilimane on the East Coast; he not only made known the great lake +system of Central Africa; but he left behind him a memory that has +blessed everyone who has followed in his steps. Largely as a result of +his work and that of his successor, Stanley, a great congress met in +Berlin in 1884 for the partition of Africa among the great nations of +Europe. Unfortunately the diplomats at this meeting were not actuated by +the noble impulses that had moved Livingstone, so that more and more +there was evident a mad scramble for territory. France had already +gained a firm foothold in the northwest, and England was not only firmly +intrenched in the South but had also established a rather undefined +protectorate over Egypt. Germany now in 1884 entered the field and in +German East Africa, German Southwest Africa, Kamerun, and the smaller +territory of Togoland in the West ultimately acquired a total of nearly +a million square miles, or one-eleventh of the continent. All of this +she lost in the course of the recent great war. Naturally she has +desired to regain this land, but at the time of writing (November, 1918) +there is no likelihood of her doing so, a distinguished Englishman, Mr. +Balfour, the foreign secretary, having declared that under no +circumstances can Germany's African colonies be returned to her, as such +return would endanger the security of the British empire, and that is to +say, the security of the world. This problem is but typical of the +larger political questions that press for settlement in the new Africa. +Whatever the solution may be, one or two facts stand out clearly. One is +that Africa can no longer rest in undisturbed slumber. A terrible war, +the most ruinous in the history of humanity, has strained to the utmost +the resources of all the great powers of the world. Where so much has +been spent it is not to be supposed that the richest, the most fertile, +land in the world will indefinitely be allowed to remain undeveloped. +Along with material development must go also the education and the +spiritual culture of the natives on a scale undreamed of before. In this +training such an enlightened country as England will naturally play a +leading role, and America too will doubtless be called on to help in +more ways than one. It must not be supposed, however, that the task is +not one of enormous difficulties. As far as we have advanced in our +missionary activities in America, we have hardly made a beginning in +the great task of the proper development of Africa. Here are +approximately 175,000,000 natives to be trained and Christianized. Let +us not make the common mistake of supposing that they are all ignorant +and degraded savages. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Many +individuals have had the benefit of travel and study in Europe and more +and more are themselves appreciating the great problems before their +country. It is true, however, that the great mass of the population is +yet to be reached. In the general development delicate questions of +racial contact are to be answered. Unfortunately, in the attitude of the +European colonist toward the native, South Africa has a race problem +even more stern than that of our own Southern states. As for religion we +not only find paganism and Mohammedanism, but we also see Catholicism +arrayed against Protestantism, and perhaps most interesting of all, a +definite movement toward the enhancement of a native Ethiopian church, +with the motto "Africa for the Africans." Let us add to all this +numerous social problems, such as polygamy, the widespread sale of rum, +and all the train of African superstition, and we shall see that any one +who works in Africa in the new day must not only be a person of keen +intelligence and Christian character, but also one with some genuine +vision and statesmanship. Workers of this quality, if they can be found, +will be needed not by the scores or hundreds, but by the thousands and +tens of thousands. No larger mission could come to a young Negro in +America trained in Christian study than to make his or her life a part +of the redemption of the great fatherland. The salvation of Africa is at +once the most pressing problem before either the Negro race or the +Kingdom of Christ. Such a worker as we have tried to portray was Nora +Gordon. It is to be hoped that not one but thousands like her will +arise. Even now we can see the beginning of the fulfilment of the +prophecy, "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch +out her hands unto God." + + + + +[Illustration: META WARRICK FULLER] + + + + +META WARRICK FULLER + + + + +IV. + +META WARRICK FULLER[B] + + +The state of Massachusetts has always been famous for its history and +literature, and especially rich in tradition is the region around +Boston. On one side is Charlestown, visited yearly by thousands who make +a pilgrimage to the Bunker Hill Monument. Across the Charles River is +Cambridge, the home of Harvard University, and Longfellow, and Lowell, +and numerous other men whose work has become a part of the nation's +heritage. If one will ride on through Cambridge and North Cambridge and +Arlington, he will come to Lexington, where he will find in the little +Lexington Common one of the most charming spots of ground in America. +Overlooking this he will see the Harrington House, and all around other +memorials of the Revolution. Taking the car again and riding about seven +miles more he will come to Concord, and here he will catch still more of +the flavor of the eighteenth century. Walking from the center of the +town down Monument Street (he _must_ walk now; there is no trolley, and +a carriage or automobile does not permit one to linger by the wayside), +he will come after a while to the Old Manse, once the home of Emerson +and of Hawthorne, and then see just around the corner the Concord Bridge +and the statue of the Minute Man. There is a new bridge now, one of +concrete; the old wooden one, so long beloved, at length became unsafe +and had to be replaced. In another direction from the center of the town +runs Lexington Road, within about half a mile down which one will see +the later homes of Emerson and Hawthorne as well as that of Louisa May +Alcott. Near the Alcott House, back among the trees, is a quaint little +structure much like a Southern country schoolhouse--the so-called +Concord School of Philosophy, in which Emerson once spoke. It is all a +beautiful country--beautiful most of all for its unseen glory. One gives +himself up to reflection; he muses on Evangeline and the Great Stone +Face and on the heroic dead who did not die in vain--until a lumbering +truck-car on the road calls him back from it all to the workaday world +of men. + +It is in this state of Massachusetts, so rich in its tradition, that +there resides the subject of the present sketch. About halfway between +Boston and Worcester, in the quiet, homelike town of Framingham, on a +winding road just off the main street, lives Meta Warrick Fuller, the +foremost sculptor of the Negro race. + +There are three little boys in the family. They keep their mother very +busy; but they also make her very happy. Buttons have to be sewed on and +dinners have to be prepared for the children of an artist just as well +as for those of other people; and help is not always easy to get. But +the father, Dr. S. C. Fuller, a distinguished physician, is also +interested in the boys, so that he too helps, and the home is a happy +one. + +At the top of the house is a long roomy attic. This is an improvised +studio--or, as the sculptor would doubtless say, the workshop. Hither, +from the busy work of the morning, comes the artist for an hour or half +an hour of modeling--for rest, and for the first effort to transfer to +the plastic clay some fleeting transient dream. + +Meta Warrick Fuller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 9, +1877. For four years she attended the Pennsylvania School of Industrial +Art, and it was at this institution that she first began to force +serious recognition of her talent. Before very long she began to be +known as a sculptor of the horrible, one of her first original pieces +being a head of Medusa, with a hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes +starting from their sockets. At her graduation in 1898 she won a prize +for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of Christ in +agony, and she also won honorable mention for her work in modeling. In a +post-graduate year she won a much coveted prize in modeling. In 1899 +Meta Warrick (then best known by her full name, Meta Vaux Warrick) went +to Paris, where she worked and studied three years. Her work brought her +in contact with many other artists, among them Augustus St. Gaudens, the +sculptor of the Robert Gould Shaw Monument at the head of Boston Common. +Then there came a day when by appointment the young woman went to see +Auguste Rodin, who after years of struggle and dispraise had finally won +recognition as the foremost sculptor in France if not in the world. The +great man glanced one after another at the pieces that were presented to +him, without very evident interest. At length, thrilled by the figure +in "Silent Sorrow," sometimes referred to as "Man Eating His Heart Out," +Rodin beamed upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you _are_ a +sculptor; you have the sense of form." With encouragement from such a +source the young artist worked with renewed vigor, looking forward to +the time when something that she had produced should win a place in the +Salon, the great national gallery in Paris. "The Wretched," one of the +artist's masterpieces, was exhibited here in 1903, and along with it +went "The Impenitent Thief." This latter production was demolished in +1904, after meeting with various unhappy accidents. In the form as +presented, however, the thief, heroic in size, hung on the cross torn by +anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, and even defiant, he still possessed +some admirable qualities of strength, and he has remained one of the +sculptor's most powerful conceptions. In "The Wretched" seven figures +greet the eye. Each represents a different form of human anguish. An old +man, worn by hunger and disease, waits for death. A mother yearns for +the loved ones she has lost. A man bowed by shame fears to look upon his +fellow-creatures. A sick child suffers from some hereditary taint. A +youth is in despair, and a woman is crazed by sorrow. Over all is the +Philosopher who suffers perhaps more keenly than the others as he views +the misery around them, and who, powerless to relieve it, also sinks +into despair. + +Other early productions were similarly characterized by a strongly +romantic quality. "Silent Sorrow" has already been remarked in passing. +In this a man, worn and gaunt and in despair, is represented as leaning +over and actually eating out his own heart. "Man Carrying Dead Body" is +in similar vein. The sculptor is moved by the thought of one who will be +spurred on by the impulse of duty to the performance of some task not +only unpleasant but even loathsome. She shows a man bearing across his +shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the +battlefield for days. The thing is horrible, and the man totters under +the great weight; but he forces his way onward until he can give it +decent burial. Another early production was based on the ancient Greek +story of Oedipus. This story was somewhat as follows: Oedipus was the +son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. At his birth an +oracle foretold that the father Laius would be killed by his son. The +child was sent away to be killed by exposure, but in course of time was +saved and afterwards adopted by the King of Corinth. When he was grown, +being warned by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his +mother, he left home. On his journey he met Laius and slew him in the +course of an altercation. Later, by solving the riddle of the sphinx, he +freed Thebes from distress, was made king of the city, and married +Jocasta. Eventually the terrible truth of the relationship became known +to all. Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his eyes. The +sculptor portrays the hero of the old legend at the very moment that he +is thus trying to punish himself for his crime. There is nothing +delicate or pretty about all such work as this. It is grewsome in fact, +and horrible; but it is also strong and intense and vital. Its merit was +at once recognized by the French, and it gave Meta Warrick a recognized +place among the sculptors of America. + +On her return to America the artist resumed her studies at the School of +Industrial Art, winning in 1904 the Battles first prize for pottery. In +1907 she produced a series of tableaux representing the advance of the +Negro for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and in 1913 a group +for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 she +became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Massachusetts. +A fire in 1910 unfortunately destroyed some of her most valuable pieces +while they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her +early work, that happened to be elsewhere, were saved. The artist was +undaunted, however, and by May, 1914, she had sufficiently recovered +from the blow to be able to hold at her home a public exhibition of her +work. + +After this fire a new note crept into the work of Meta Warrick Fuller. +This was doubtless due not so much to the fire itself as to the larger +conception of life that now came to the sculptor with the new duties of +marriage and motherhood. From this time forth it was not so much the +romantic as the social note that was emphasized. Representative of the +new influence was the second model of the group for the Emancipation +Proclamation Commission. A recently emancipated Negro youth and maiden +stand beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has what looks almost +like a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them forth +into the world while at the same time the hand of Destiny is restraining +them in the full exercise of their freedom. "Immigrant in America" is in +somewhat similar vein. An American woman, the mother of one strong +healthy child, is shown welcoming to the land of plenty the foreigner, +the mother of several poorly nourished children. Closely related in +subject is the smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal," in which a mother +capable of producing and caring for three sturdy children is shown as +making a quiet demand for the suffrage and for any other privileges to +which a human being is entitled. All of these productions are clear cut, +straightforward, and dignified. + +In May, 1917, Meta Warrick Fuller took second prize in a competition +under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman's Peace +Party, her subject being "Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War." War is +personified as on a mighty steed and trampling to death numberless human +beings. In one hand he holds a spear on which he has transfixed the head +of one of his victims. As he goes on his masterful career Peace meets +him and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in +gray-green wax and was a production of most unusual spirit. + +Among other prominent titles are "Watching for Dawn," a conception of +remarkable beauty and yearning, and "Mother and Child." An early +production somewhat detached from other pieces is a head of John the +Baptist. This is one of the most haunting creations of Mrs. Fuller. In +it she was especially successful in the infinite yearning and pathos +that she somehow managed to give to the eyes of the seer. It bears the +unmistakable stamp of power. + +In this whole review of this sculptor's work we have indicated only the +chief titles. She is an indefatigable worker and has produced numerous +smaller pieces, many of these being naturally for commercial purposes. +As has been remarked, while her work was at first romantic and often +even horrible, in recent years she has been interested rather in social +themes. There are those, however, who hope that she will not utterly +forsake the field in which she first became distinguished. Through the +sternness of her early work speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race. +In any case it is pleasant to record that the foremost sculptor of the +race is not only an artist of rank but also a woman who knows and +appreciates in the highest possible manner the virtues and the beauties +of the home. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[B] For the further pursuit of this and related subjects the attention +of the reader is invited to the author's "The Negro in Literature and +Art" (Duffield & Co., New York, N. Y., 1918). + + + + +[Illustration: MARY McLEOD BETHUNE] + + + + +MARY McLEOD BETHUNE + + + + +V. + +MARY McLEOD BETHUNE + + +On October 3, 1904, a lone woman, inspired by the desire to do something +for the needy ones of her race and state, began at Daytona, Florida, a +training school for Negro girls. She had only one dollar and a half in +money, but she had faith, energy, and a heart full of love for her +people. To-day she has an institution worth not less than one hundred +thousand dollars, with plans for extensive and immediate enlargement, +and her school is one of the best conducted and most clear-visioned in +the country. Such has been the result of boundless energy and thrift +joined to an unwavering faith in God. + +Mary McLeod was born July 10, 1875, in a three-room log cabin on a +little cotton and rice farm about three miles from Mayesville, South +Carolina, being one in the large family of Samuel and Patsy McLeod. +Ambitious even from her early years, she yearned for larger and finer +things than her environment afforded; and yet even the life that she +saw around her was to prove a blessing in disguise, as it gave to her +deeper and clearer insight into the problems, the shortcomings, and the +needs of her people. In course of time she attended a little mission +school in Mayesville, and she was converted at the age of twelve. Later +she was graduated at Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina, and then +she went to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In the years of her +schooling she received some assistance from a scholarship given by Miss +Mary Chrisman, a dressmaker of Denver, Colorado. Mary McLeod never +forgot that she had been helped by a working woman. Some day she +intended to justify that faith, and time has shown that never was a +scholarship invested to better advantage. + +In 1898 Mary McLeod was married. She became the mother of one son. Not +long after, the family moved to Palatka, Florida. Now followed the hard +years of waiting, of praying, of hoping; but through it all the earnest +woman never lost faith in herself, nor in God. She gained experience in +a little school that she taught, she sang with unusual effect in the +churches of the town, and she took part in any forward movement or +uplift enterprise that she could. All the while, however, she knew that +the big task was yet to come. She prayed, and hoped, and waited. + +By the fall of 1904 it seemed that the time had come. In a little rented +house, with five girls, Mrs. Bethune began what is now the Daytona +Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls. By means of concerts +and festivals the first payment of five dollars was made on the present +site, then an old dump-pile. With their own hands the teacher and the +pupils cleared away much of the rubbish, and from the first they invited +the co-operation of the people around them by lending a helping hand in +any way they could, by "being neighborly." In 1905 a Board of Trustees +was organized and the school was chartered. In 1907 Faith Hall, a +four-story frame house, forty by fifty feet, was "prayed up, sung up, +and talked up;" and we can understand at what a premium space was in the +earlier days when we know that this building furnished dormitory +accommodations for teachers and students, dining-room, reading room, +storerooms, and bathrooms. To the rear of Faith Hall was placed a +two-story structure containing the school kitchen and the domestic +science room. In 1909 the school found it necessary to acquire a farm +for the raising of live stock and vegetables and for the practical +outdoor training of the girls. After six weeks of earnest work the +twelve-acre tract in front of the school was purchased. In 1914 a Model +Home was built. In this year also an additional west farm of six acres, +on which was a two-story frame building, was needed, asked for and +procured. In March, 1918, the labors of fourteen years were crowned by +the erection and dedication of a spacious auditorium; and among the +speakers at the dedication were the Governor of Florida and the +Vice-President of the United States. Efforts now look forward to a great +new dormitory for the girls. + +Such a bare account of achievements, however, by no means gives one an +adequate conception of the striving and the hopings and the praying that +have entered into the work. To begin with, Daytona was a strategic place +for the school. There was no other such school along the entire east +coast of Florida, and as a place of unusual beauty and attractiveness +the town was visited throughout the winter by wealthy tourists. From the +very first, however, the girls were trained in the virtues of the home, +and in self-help. Great emphasis was placed on domestic science, and +not only for this as an end in itself, but also as a means for the +larger training in cleanliness and thrift and good taste. "We notice +strawberries are selling at fifty and sixty cents a quart," said a +visitor, "and you have a splendid patch. Do you use them for your +students or sell them?" "We never eat a quart when we can get fifty +cents for them," was the reply. "We can take fifty cents and buy a bone +that will make soup for us all, when a quart of berries would supply +only a few." + +For one interested in education few pictures could be more beautiful +than that of the dining-room at the school in the morning of a day in +midterm. Florida is warm often even in midwinter; nevertheless, rising +at five gives one a keen appetite for the early breakfast. The ceiling +is low and there are other obvious disadvantages; but over all is the +spirit of good cheer and of home. The tablecloths are very white and +clean; flowers are on the different tables; at the head of each a +teacher presides over five or six girls; the food is nourishing and +well-prepared; and one leaves with the feeling that if he had a sister +or daughter he would like for her to have the training of some such +place as this. + +Of such quality is the work that has been built up; and all has been +accomplished through the remarkable personality of the woman who is the +head and the soul of every effort. Indomitable courage, boundless +energy, fine tact and a sense of the fitness of things, kindly spirit, +and firm faith in God have deservedly given her success. Beyond the +bounds of her immediate institution her influence extends. About the +year 1912 the trustees felt the need of so extending the work as to make +the school something of a community center; and thus arose the McLeod +Hospital and Training School for Nurses. In 1912, moved by the utter +neglect of the children of the turpentine camp at Tomoka, Mrs. Bethune +started work for them in a little house that she secured. The aim was to +teach the children to be clean and truthful and helpful, to sew and to +sweep and to sing. A short school term was started among them, and the +mission serves as an excellent practice school for the girls of the +senior class in the Training School. A summer school and a playground +have also been started for the children in Daytona. Nor have the boys +and young men been neglected. Here was a problem of unusual difficulty. +Any one who has looked into the inner life of the small towns of +Florida could not fail to be impressed by the situation of the boys and +young men. Hotel life, a shifting tourist population, and a climate of +unusual seductiveness, have all left their impress. On every side to the +young man beckons temptation, and in town after town one finds not one +decent recreation center or uplifting social influence. Pool-rooms +abound, and the young man is blamed for entering forbidden paths; but +all too often the Christian men and women of the community have put +forth no definite organized effort for his uplift. All too often there +results a blasted life--a heartache for a mother, or a ruined home for +some young woman. In Daytona, in 1913, on a lot near the school campus, +one of the trustees, Mr. George S. Doane, erected a neat, commodious +building to be used in connection with the extension work of the +institution as a general reading-room and home for the Young Men's +Christian Association; and this is the only specific work so being done +for Negro boys in this section of the state. A debating club, an +athletic club, lecture club, and prayer-meetings all serve as means +toward the physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of the +young men. A "Better Boys Movement" is also making progress and the +younger boys are becoming interested in canning and farming as well as +being cared for in their sports and games. + +No sketch of this woman's work should close without mention of her +activities for the nation at large. Red Cross work or a Liberty Loan +drive has alike called forth her interest and her energy. She has +appeared on some great occasions and before distinguished audiences, +such as that for instance in the Belasco Theatre in Washington in +December, 1917, when on a noteworthy patriotic occasion she was the only +representative of her race to speak. + +Her girls have gone into many spheres of life and have regularly made +themselves useful and desirable. Nearly two hundred are now annually +enrolled at the school. The demand for them as teachers, seamstresses, +or cooks far exceeds the supply. In great homes and humble, in country +or in town, in Daytona or elsewhere--North, South, East, West--they +remember the motto of their teacher and of the Master of all, "Not to be +ministered unto but to minister;" and year after year they accomplish +better and better things for the school that they love so well and +through it for the Kingdom of God. + + * * * * * + +Two thousand years ago the Savior of Mankind walked upon the earth, a +man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and the people hid as it were +their faces from him. But one day he went into the home of a Pharisee +and sat him down to meat. And a woman of the city, when she knew that +Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of +ointment, exceeding precious, and began to wash his feet with her tears, +and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and +anointed them with the ointment. And there were some that had +indignation among themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the +ointment made? But Jesus said, Let her alone. She hath wrought a good +work on me. She hath done what she could. Verily, I say unto you, +Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, +this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. + +To-day as well as centuries ago the Christ is before us, around us, +waiting. We do not always know him, for he appears in disguise, as a +little orphan, or a sick old woman, or even perhaps as some one of high +estate but in need of prayer. Let us do what we can. Let each one prove +herself an earnest follower. To such end is the effort of Mary McLeod +Bethune; and as we think of all that she has done and is doing let us +for our own selves once more recall the beautiful words of Sister Moore: +"There is no place too lowly or dark for our feet to enter, and no place +so high and bright but it needs the touch of the light that we carry +from the Cross." + + + + +[Illustration: MARY CHURCH TERRELL] + + + + +MARY CHURCH TERRELL + + + + +VI. + +MARY CHURCH TERRELL + + +With the increasingly complex problems of American civilization, woman +is being called on in ways before undreamed of to bear a share in great +public burdens. The recent great war has demonstrated anew the part that +she is to play in our factories, our relief work, our religious +organizations--in all the activities of our social and industrial life. +The broadening basis of the suffrage in some states and the election of +a woman to a seat in Congress have also emphasized the fact that in the +new day woman as well as man will have to bear the larger +responsibilities of citizenship. In all this intense life the Negro +woman has taken a part, and she will have to do still more in the +future. Even before the Civil War there were women of the race who +labored, sometimes in large ways, for the influencing of sentiment and +the salvation of their people. In the present period of our country's +history new problems arise, sometimes even more delicate than those that +went before them and even more difficult of solution--problems of +education, readjustment, and of the proper moulding of public opinion. +They call for keen intelligence, broad information, rich culture, and +the ability to meet men and women of other races and other countries on +the broad plane of cosmopolitanism. In public life and in the higher +graces of society no woman of the race has commanded more attention from +the American and the international public than Mary Church Terrell. + +The life of this woman is an example of the possibilities not only of +Negro but of American womanhood. She has appeared on platforms with men +and women of other races, sometimes sturdy opponents on public +questions, and more than held her own. She has attended an international +congress in Europe and surpassed all the other women from her country in +her ability to address audiences in languages other than English. With +all this she has never forgotten the religious impulse that is so strong +in the heart of her people and that ultimately is to play so large a +part in their advancement. One admirer of her culture has said, "She +should be engaged to travel over the country as a model of good manners +and good English." + +Mary Church was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Robert R. +and Louisa Ayres Church. When she was yet very young her parents sent +her to Ohio to be educated, and here she remained until she was +graduated from the classical course in 1884. Then for two years she +taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio, and for one year more in a +high school in Washington. Desirous of broadening her attainments, +however, she now went to Europe for a period of study and travel. She +remained two years, spending the time in France, Switzerland, Germany, +and Italy, generally improving herself in language. On her return she +resumed her work in Washington, and she was offered the registrarship at +Oberlin College, a distinct compliment coming as it did from an +institution of such high standing. She declined the attractive position, +however, because of her approaching marriage to Robert H. Terrell, a +graduate of Harvard College and formerly principal of a high school in +Washington, who was appointed to a judgeship in the District of Columbia +by President Roosevelt. + +Since her marriage Mrs. Terrell has written much on topics of general +interest and from time to time has formally appeared as a public +lecturer. One of her strongest articles was that on Lynching in the +_North American Review_ for June, 1904. The centenary of the birth of +Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1912 found her unusually well posted on the +life and work of the novelist, so that after she lectured many times on +the subject she brought together the results of her study in an +excellent pamphlet. She was the first president of the National +Association of Colored Women's Clubs, was twice re-elected, and, +declining to serve further, was made honorary president for life. She +was chosen as one of the speakers at the International Congress of Women +held in Berlin in June, 1904. Said the _Washington Post_ of her +performance on this occasion: "The hit of the Congress on the part of +the American delegates was made by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell of +Washington, who delivered one speech in German and another in equally +good French. Mrs. Terrell is a colored woman who appears to have been +beyond every other of our delegates prominent for her ability to make +addresses in other than her own language." In a letter to some of the +largest newspapers in the country Mrs. Ida Husted Harper said further: +"This achievement on the part of a colored woman, added to a fine +appearance and the eloquence of her words, carried the audience by +storm and she had to respond three times to the encores before they were +satisfied. It was more than a personal triumph; it was a triumph for her +race." + +Mrs. Terrell has ever exhibited an intense interest in public affairs. +On the occasion of the discharge of the Negro soldiers in Brownsville, +Texas, in 1906, she at once comprehended the tremendous issues involved +and by her interviews with men high in the nation's life did much for +the improvement of a bad situation. When, some years ago, Congress by +resolution granted power to the Commissioners of the District of +Columbia to appoint two women upon the Board of Education for the public +schools, Mrs. Terrell was one of the women appointed. She served on the +Board for five years with signal ability and unusual success, and on the +occasion of her resignation in 1912 was given a magnificent testimonial +by her fellow-citizens. + +It would be difficult to record all the different things that Mary +Church Terrell has done or the numerous ways in which she has turned +sentiment on the race problem. In recent years she has been drawn more +and more to her own home. She is in constant demand as a speaker, +however, and one or two experiences or incidents must not pass +unremarked. In 1906 she was invited by Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks to come +to Cornell University to deliver her address on the Bright Side of the +Race Problem. She was introduced by Prof. F. A. Fetter of the Department +of Economics. When she had finished her lecture she was greeted by +deafening applause, and then she was surrounded by an eager crowd +desirous of receiving an introduction. One enthusiastic woman exclaimed, +as she warmly shook the speaker's hand, "I was so glad to hear you say +something about the bright side, and--do you know?--every Southern +faculty woman was here." A little later she was the guest of honor at a +reception in the home of Ex-Ambassador Andrew D. White, the first +president of Cornell University. + +Just what Mary Church Terrell means as an inspiration to the young women +of the Negro race one might have seen some years ago if he could have +been present at Spelman Seminary on the occasion of the twenty-fifth +anniversary of this the largest school for Negro girls in the world. She +was preceded on the program by one or two prominent speakers who tried +to take a broad view of the race problem but who were plainly baffled +when they came face to face with Southern prejudice. When Mrs. Terrell +rose to speak the air was tense with eagerness and anxiety. How she +acquitted herself on this occasion, how eloquently she plead, and how +nimbly and delicately she met her opponents' arguments, will never be +forgotten by any one who was privileged to hear her. + +The compliments that have been paid to the eloquence, the grace, the +culture, the tact, and the poise of this woman are endless. She exhibits +exceptional attainments either on or off the platform. Her words bristle +with earnestness and energy, quickly captivating an audience or holding +the closest attention in conversation. Her gestures are frequent, but +always in sympathetic harmony. Her face is inclined to be sad in repose, +but lights quickly and effectively to the soul of whatever subject she +touches. Her voice is singularly clear and free from harsh notes. She +exhibits no apparent effort in speaking, and at once impresses an +audience by her ease, her courage, and her self-abnegation. Through all +her work moreover constantly thrills her great hope for the young men +and women of her race, so many of whom she has personally inspired. + +Such a woman is an asset to her country and an honor to the race to +which she belongs. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Achievement, by Benjamin Brawley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 38783-8.txt or 38783-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/8/38783/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of Achievement + Written for the Fireside Schools + +Author: Benjamin Brawley + +Release Date: February 7, 2012 [EBook #38783] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></p> + +<h1>Women of Achievement</h1> + +<div class='center'><span class='small'>Written for</span><br /> +The Fireside Schools<br /> +<br /><br /><br /> +Under the auspices of the<br /> + +Woman's American Baptist<br /> +Home Mission Society<br /><br /><br /> + +by<br /> + +<span class='author'>BENJAMIN BRAWLEY</span><br /> + +Dean of Morehouse College<br /> + + +<span class='small'>Author of "A Short History of the American Negro," "The Negro<br /> +in Literature and Art," "Your Negro Neighbor," Etc.</span></div> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> + + + + +<div class='copyright'> +Copyright, 1919<br /> +by the<br /> +Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society.<br /> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + + + + + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="contents"> +<tr><td align="right">I.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_7">Introduction.—The Negro Woman in American Life.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">II.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_25">Harriet Tubman.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">III.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_40">Nora Gordon.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">IV.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_57">Meta Warrick Fuller.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">V.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_70">Mary McLeod Bethune.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="right">VI.</td><td align="left"> <a href="#Page_83">Mary Church Terrell.</a></td></tr> +</table></div> +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 428px;"> +<img src="images/illus01.jpg" width="428" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">JOANNA P. MOORE</span> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>THE FIRESIDE SCHOOLS</h2> + + +<p>The work of the Fireside Schools was +begun in 1884 by Joanna P. Moore, who +was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, +September 26, 1832, and who died in Selma, +Alabama, April 15, 1916. For fifty years +Miss Moore was well known as an earnest +worker for the betterment of the Negro +people of the South. Beginning in the +course of the Civil War, at Island No. 10, +in November, 1863, she gave herself untiringly +to the work to which she felt called. +In 1864 she ministered to a group of people +at Helena, Arkansas. In 1868 she went to +Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help the Friends +in an orphan asylum. While she was at one +time left temporarily in charge of the institution +cholera broke out, and eleven children +died within one week; but she remained at +her post until the fury of the plague was +abated. She spent nine years in the vicinity +of New Orleans, reading the Bible to those +who could not read, writing letters in search +of lost ones, and especially caring for the +helpless old women that she met. In 1877 +the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission +Society gave her its first commission.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span></p> + +<p>The object of the Fireside Schools is to +secure the daily prayerful study of God's +word by having this read to parents and +children together; to teach parents and children, +husbands and wives, their respective +duties one to another; to supply homes with +good reading matter; and also to inculcate +temperance, industry, neighborly helpfulness, +and greater attention to the work of +the church. The publication of <i>Hope</i>, the +organ of the Fireside Schools, was begun in +1885. Closely associated with the Schools +are the Bible Bands, a single band consisting +of any two or three people in the same +church or neighborhood who meet to review +the lessons in <i>Hope</i> and to report and plan +Christian work. All the activities are under +the general supervision of the Woman's +American Baptist Home Mission Society, +though the special Fireside School headquarters +are at 612 Gay Street, Nashville, +Tennessee. The present work is dedicated +to the memory of Joanna P. Moore, and to +the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily +numbered by the thousands, who are +engaged in the work of the Fireside Schools.</p> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>I.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>INTRODUCTION.<br /> + +The Negro Woman in American Life</div> + + +<p>In the history of the Negro race in America +no more heroic work has been done than that +performed by the Negro woman. The great +responsibilities of life have naturally drifted +to the men; but who can measure the patience, +the love, the self-sacrifice of those +who in a more humble way have labored for +their people and even in the midst of war +striven most earnestly to keep the home-fires +burning? Even before emancipation a +strong character had made herself felt in +more than one community; and to-day, +whether in public life, social service, education, +missions, business, literature, music, or +even the professions and scholarship, the +Negro woman is making her way and reflecting +credit upon a race that for so many +years now has been struggling to the light.</p> + +<p>It was but natural that those should first +become known who were interested in the +uplift of the race. If we except such an +unusual and specially gifted spirit as Phillis<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +Wheatley, we shall find that those who most +impressed the American public before the +Civil War were the ones who best identified +themselves with the general struggle for +freedom. Outstanding was the famous lecturer, +Sojourner Truth. This remarkable +woman was born of slave parents in the +state of New York about 1798. She recalled +vividly in her later years the cold, damp +cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the +family to which she belonged, and where she +was taught by her mother to repeat the +Lord's Prayer and to trust God at all times. +When in the course of the process of gradual +emancipation in New York she became legally +free in 1827, her master refused to +comply with the law. She left, but was +pursued and found. Rather than have her +go back, however, a friend paid for her +services for the rest of the year. Then there +came an evening when, searching for one of +her children that had been stolen and sold, +she found herself without a resting-place +for the night. A Quaker family, however, +gave her lodging. Afterwards she went to +New York City, joined a Methodist church, +and worked hard to improve her condition. +Later, having decided to leave New York +for a lecture tour through the East, she +made a small bundle of her belongings and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +informed a friend that her name was no +longer <i>Isabella</i>, as she had been known, but +<i>Sojourner</i>. Afterwards, as she herself said, +finding that she needed two names she +adopted <i>Truth</i>, because it was intended that +she should declare the truth to the people. +She went on her way, lecturing to people +wherever she found them assembled and being +entertained in many aristocratic homes. +She was entirely untaught in the schools, +but tall and of commanding presence, original, +witty, and always suggestive. The stories +told about her are numberless; but she +was ever moved by an abiding trust in God, +and she counted among her friends many of +the most distinguished Americans of her +time. By her tact and her gift of song she +kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and +faith she won many friends for the anti-slavery +cause.</p> + +<p>It was impossible of course for any single +woman to carry on the tradition of such a +character as Sojourner Truth. She belonged +to a distinct epoch in the country's +history, one in which the rights of the Negro +and the rights of woman in general were +frequently discussed on the same platform; +and she passed—so far as her greatest influence +was concerned—with her epoch. In<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +more recent years those women who have +represented the race before the larger public +have been persons of more training and culture, +though it has been practically impossible +for any one to equal the native force +and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding +in recent years have been Mrs. Booker T. +Washington and Mrs. Mary Church Terrell. +The spread of culture, however, and the +general force of the social emphasis have +more and more led those who were interested +in social betterment to come together +so that there might be the greater effect +from united effort. Thus we have had developing +in almost all of our cities and towns +various clubs working for the good of the +race, whether the immediate aim was literary +culture, an orphanage, an old folks' home, +the protection of working girls, or something +else similarly noble. Prominent among +the pioneers in such work were Mrs. Josephine +St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, and Mrs. +John T. Cook, of Washington, D. C. No +one can record exactly how much has been +accomplished by these organizations; in fact, +the clubs range all the way in effectiveness +from one that is a dominating force in its +town to one that is struggling to get started. +The result of the work, however, would in +any case sum up with an astonishing total.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +A report from Illinois, fairly representative +of the stronger work, mentioned the following +activities: "The Cairo hospital, fostered +and under the supervision of the Yates Club +of Cairo; the Anna Field Home for Girls, +Peoria; Lincoln Old Folks' and Orphans' +Home, founded by Mrs. Eva Monroe and +assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield; +the Home for Aged and Infirm Colored +People, Chicago, founded by Mrs. +Gabrella Smith and others; the Amanda +Smith Orphans' Home, Harvey; the Phillis +Wheatley Home for Wage-Earning Girls, +of Chicago." In Alabama the State Federation +of Colored Women's Clubs has established +and is supporting a reformatory at +Mt. Meigs for Negro boys, and the women +are very enthusiastic about the work. A +beautiful and well ordered home for Negro +girls was established a few years ago in +Virginia. Of the White Rose Mission of +New York we are told that it "has done +much good. A large number of needy ones +have found shelter within its doors and have +been able to secure work of all kinds. This +club has a committee to meet the incoming +steamers from the South and see that young +women entering the city as strangers are +directed to proper homes." All such work<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +is touching in its tenderness and effectiveness. +The National Association of Colored +Women's Clubs was founded in 1896. +The organization has become stronger and +stronger until it is now a powerful and +effective one with hundreds of members. +One of its recent activities has been the purchase +of the home of Frederick Douglass at +Anacostia, D. C.</p> + +<p>In education, church life, and missions—special +forms of social service—we have only +to look around us to see what the Negro +woman is accomplishing. Not only is she +bearing the brunt of common school education +for the race; in more than one instance +a strong character, moved to do something, +has started on a career of success a good +secondary or industrial school. Representative +are the Voorhees Normal and Industrial +School, at Denmark, S. C., founded by +Elizabeth C. Wright; the Daytona Normal +and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, +founded by Mrs. M. M. Bethune; and the +Mt. Meigs Institute, Mt. Meigs, Alabama, +founded by Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy +for its special missionary emphasis +is the National Training School of Washington, +of which Miss Nannie H. Burroughs +is the head. One of the most important +recent developments in education has been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +the appointment of a number of young +women as supervisors in county schools +under the terms of the will of Anna T. +Jeanes, a Quaker lady of Philadelphia who +left a considerable sum of money for the +improvement of the rural schools of the +South. In church work we all know the +extent to which women have had to bear the +burden not only of the regular activities but +also of the numerous "rallies" that still so +unfortunately afflict our churches. Deserving +of special mention in connection with +social service is the work of those who have +labored under the auspices of the Young +Women's Christian Association, which has +done so much for the moral well-being of the +great camps in the war. In foreign mission +work one of the educational institutions sustained +primarily by Northern Baptist agencies—Spelman +Seminary—stands out with +distinct prominence. Not only has Spelman +sent to Africa several of her daughters from +this country, the first one being Nora Gordon +in 1889; she has also educated several +who have come to her from Africa, the first +being Lena Clark, and for these the hope +has ever been that they would return to their +own country for their largest and most +mature service.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the realm of business the Negro woman +has stood side by side with her husband in +the rise to higher things. In almost every +instance in which a man has prospered, investigation +will show that his advance was +very largely due to the faith, the patience, +and the untiring effort of his wife. Dr. +B. T. Washington, in his book <i>The Negro in +Business</i>, gave several examples. One of +the outstanding instances was in the story +of Junius G. Groves, famous potato grower +of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man moved +from his original home in Kentucky to +Kansas at the time of the well-known +"Exodus" of 1879, a migration movement +which was even more voluntary on the part +of the Negro than the recent removal to the +North on the part of so many, this latter +movement being in so many ways a result of +war conditions. Mr. Groves in course of +time became a man of large responsibilities +and means. It is most interesting, however, +to go back to his early days of struggle. We +read as follows: "Soon after getting the +crop planted Mr. Groves decided to marry. +When he reached this decision he had but +seventy-five cents in cash, and had to borrow +enough to satisfy the demands of the law. +But he knew well the worth and common +sense of the woman he was to marry. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +was as poor in worldly goods as himself; but +their poverty did not discourage them in +their plans. * * * * During the whole +season they worked with never-tiring energy, +early and late; with the result that when the +crop had been harvested and all debts paid +they had cleared $125. Notwithstanding +their lack of many necessaries of life, to say +nothing of comforts, they decided to invest +$50 of their earnings in a lot in Kansas City, +Kansas. They paid $25 for a milk cow, and +kept the remaining $50 to be used in the +making of another crop." In the course of +a few years Mr. Groves, with the help of +his wife, now the mother of a large family, +gathered in one year hundreds of thousands +of bushels of white potatoes, surpassing all +other growers in the world. Similarly was +the success of E. C. Berry, a hotel-keeper of +Athens, Ohio, due to his wife. "At night, +after his guests had fallen asleep, it was his +custom to go around and gather up their +clothes and take them to his wife, who would +add buttons which were lacking, repair rents, +and press the garments, after which Mr. +Berry would replace them in the guests' +rooms. Guests who had received such treatment +returned again and brought their +friends with them." In course of time Mr. +and Mrs. Berry came to own the leading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +hotel in Athens, one of fifty rooms and of +special favor with commercial travelers.</p> + +<p>Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely. +It is not only in such spheres that +the worth of the Negro woman has been +shown, however. Daily, in thousands of +homes, in little stores and on humble farms, +effort just as heroic has been exerted, +though the result is not always so evident. +On their own initiative also women are now +engaging in large enterprises. The most +conspicuous example of material success is +undoubtedly Mme. C. J. Walker, of the +Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, +of Indianapolis and New York, a +business that is now conducted on a large +scale and in accordance with the best business +methods of America. Important also +in this connection is the very great contribution +that Negro women—very often those +without education and opportunity—are +making in the ordinary industrial life of the +country. According to the census of 1910, +1,047,146, or 52 per cent. of those at work, +were either farmers or farm laborers, and +28 per cent. more were either cooks or washerwomen. +In other words, a total of exactly +80 per cent. were doing some of the +hardest and at the same time some of the +most necessary work in our home and industrial<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span> +life. These are workers whose worth +has never been fully appreciated by the +larger public, and who needed the heavy +demands of the great war to call attention +to the actual value of the service they were +rendering.</p> + +<p>The changes in fact brought about within +the last few years, largely as a result of war +conditions, are remarkable. As Mary E. +Jackson, writing in the <i>Crisis</i>, has said: +"Indiana reports [Negro women] in glass +works; in Ohio they are found on the night +shifts of glass works; they have gone into +the pottery works in Virginia; wood-working +plants and lumber yards have called for +their help in Tennessee." She also quotes +Rachel S. Gallagher, of Cleveland, Ohio, as +saying of the Negro women in that city: +"We find them on power sewing-machines, +making caps, waists, bags, and mops; we +find them doing pressing and various hand +operations in these same shops. They are +employed in knitting factories as winders, +in a number of laundries on mangles of +every type, and in sorting and marking. +They are in paper box factories doing both +hand and machine work, in button factories +on the button machines, in packing houses +packing meat, in railroad yards wiping and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +cleaning engines, and doing sorting in railroad +shops. One of our workers recently +found two colored girls on a knotting machine +in a bed spring factory, putting the +knots in the wire springs."</p> + +<p>In the professions, such as medicine and +law, and in scholarship as well, the Negro +woman has blazed a path. One year after +Oberlin College in Ohio was founded in +1833, thirty years before the issuing of the +Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees +took the advanced ground of admitting +Negro men and women on equal terms with +other students. Of the Northern colleges +and universities Oberlin still leads in the +number of its Negro women graduates, but +in recent years other such institutions as +Radcliffe, Wellesley, Columbia, and Chicago +have been represented in an increasing +number by those who have finished their +work creditably and even with distinction in +many instances. More and more each year +are young women at these institutions going +forward to the attainment of the higher +scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine +we recall the work in the war of the +Negro woman in the related profession of +nursing. It was only after considerable discussion +that she was given a genuine opportunity<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +in Red Cross work, but she at once +vindicated herself. In the legal profession +she has not only been admitted to practice +in various places, but has also been appointed +to public office. It must be understood +that such positions as those just remarked +are not secured without a struggle, +but all told they indicate that the race +through its womanhood is more and more +taking part in the general life of the country.</p> + +<p>In keeping with the romantic quality of +the race it was but natural that from the first +there should have been special effort at self-expression +in literature, music, and other +forms of art. The first Negro woman to +strike the public imagination was Phillis +Wheatley, who even as a young girl wrote +acceptable verse. Her <i>Poems on Various +Subjects</i> published in 1773 at once attracted +attention, and it was fitting that the +first Negro woman to become distinguished +in America should be one of outstanding +piety and nobility of soul. Just a few years +before the Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins, +better known as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper, +entered upon her career as a writer of +popular poetry. At the present time attention +centers especially upon Mrs. Georgia +Douglas Johnson, who early in 1918<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +produced in <i>The Heart of a Woman</i> a +little volume of delicate and poignantly +beautiful verse, and from whom greater and +greater things are expected, as she not only +has the temperament of an artist but has +also undergone a period of severe training +in her chosen field. In the wider field of +prose—including especially stories, essays, +and sketches—Mrs. Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson +is prominent. In 1899 she produced +<i>The Goodness of St. Rocque, and +other stories</i>, and since then has continued +her good work in various ways. The whole +field of literature is a wide one, one naturally +appealing to many of the younger +women, and one that with all its difficulties +and lack of financial return does offer some +genuine reward to the candidate who is willing +to work hard and who does not seek a +short cut to fame.</p> + +<p>In music the race has produced more +women of distinction than in any other field. +This was natural, for the Negro voice is +world famous. The pity is that all too frequently +some of the most capable young +women have not had the means to cultivate +their talents and hence have fallen by the +wayside. Some day it is to be hoped that a +great philanthropist will endow a real conservatory<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +at which such persons may find +some genuine opportunity and encouragement +in their development in their days of +struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, +however, there have been singers who have +risen to very high things in their art. Even +before the Civil War the race produced one +of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, +who came into prominence in 1851. +This artist, born in Mississippi, was taken +to Philadelphia and there cared for by a +Quaker lady. The young woman did not +soon reveal her gift to her friend, thinking +that it might be frowned upon as something +too worldly. Her guardian learned of it by +accident, however, and one day surprised her +by asking, "Elizabeth, is it true that thee can +sing?" "Yes," replied the young woman in +confusion. "Let me hear thee." And Elizabeth +sang; and her friend, realizing that she +had a voice of the first quality, proceeded to +give her the best instruction that it was possible +to get. Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield +had a marvelous voice embracing twenty-seven +notes, reaching from the sonorous bass +of a baritone to the highest soprano. A +voice with a range of more than three octaves +naturally attracted much attention in +both England and America, and comparisons +with Jenny Lind, then at the height of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +her great fame, were frequent. In the next +generation arose Madame Selika, a cultured +singer of the first rank, and one who by her +arias and operatic work generally, as well +as by her mastery of language, won great +success on the continent of Europe as well +as in England and America. The careers +of some later singers are so recent as to be +still fresh in the public memory; some in +fact may still be heard. It was in 1887 that +Flora Batson entered on the period of her +greatest success. She was a ballad singer +and her work at its best was of the sort that +sends an audience into the wildest enthusiasm. +In a series of temperance meetings in +New York she sang for ninety consecutive +nights, with never-failing effect, one song, +"Six Feet of Earth Make Us All One Size." +Her voice exhibited a compass of three octaves, +but even more important than its +range was its remarkable sympathetic quality. +Early in the last decade of the century +appeared also Mrs. Sissieretta Jones, whose +voice at once commanded attention as one of +unusual richness and volume, and as one +exhibiting especially the plaintive quality +ever present in the typical Negro voice.</p> + +<p>At the present time there are several +promising singers; and there are also those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +who in various ways are working for the +general advancement of the race in music. +Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years +prominent as a concert soprano, has recently +given her time most largely to the work of +teaching and showing the capabilities of the +Negro voice. Possessed of a splendid +musical temperament, she has enjoyed the +benefit of three years of foreign study and +generally inspired many younger singers or +performers. Prominent among many excellent +pianists is Mrs. Hazel Harrison +Anderson, who also has studied much +abroad and who has appeared in many +noteworthy recitals. Mrs. Maud Cuney +Hare, of Boston, a concert pianist, has +within the last few years given several excellent +lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American +music.</p> + +<p>As between painting and sculpture the +women of the race have shown a decided +preference for sculpture. While there are +some students of promise, no woman has as +yet achieved distinction on work of really +professional quality in the realm of painting. +On the other hand there have been three or +four sculptors of genuine merit. As early +as 1865 Edmonia Lewis began to attract attention +by her busts of prominent people.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +Within the last few years the work of Mrs. +May Howard Jackson, of Washington, has +attracted the attention of the discerning; +and that of Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller is +reserved for special comment.</p> + +<p>Any such review as this naturally has its +limitations. We can indicate only a few of +the outstanding individuals here and there. +At least enough has been said, however, to +show that the Negro woman is making her +way at last into every phase of noble endeavor. +In the pages that follow we shall +attempt to set forth at somewhat greater +length the life and work of a few of those +whose achievement has been most signal and +whose interest in their sisters has been +unfailing.</p> +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 365px;"> +<a href="images/illus02-big.jpg"><img src="images/illus02.jpg" width="365" height="600" alt="" /></a> +<span class="caption">Used through courtesy of John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry and Iron Works, New York, N. Y.</span> +</div> +<div class='tnote'><b>Transcriber's Note:</b> A larger version of this +image may be seen by clicking on this image.</div> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span></p> + + + + + + +<h2>HARRIET TUBMAN</h2> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>II.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>HARRIET TUBMAN<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></div> + + +<p>Greatest of all the heroines of anti-slavery +was Harriet Tubman. This brave +woman not only escaped from bondage herself, +but afterwards made nineteen distinct +trips to the South, especially to Maryland, +and altogether aided more than three hundred +souls in escaping from their fetters.</p> + +<p>Araminta Ross, better known by the +Christian name <i>Harriet</i> that she adopted, +and her married name of <i>Tubman</i>, was born +about 1821 in Dorchester County, on the +eastern shore of Maryland, the daughter of +Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both +of whom were slaves, but who were privileged +to be able to live their lives in a state +of singular fidelity. Harriet had ten brothers +and sisters, not less than three of whom +she rescued from slavery; and in 1857, at +great risk to herself, she also took away to +the North her aged father and mother.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> +<p>When Harriet was not more than six +years old she was taken away from her +mother and sent ten miles away to learn the +trade of weaving. Among other things she +was set to the task of watching muskrat +traps, which work compelled her to wade +much in water. Once she was forced to +work when she was already ill with the +measles. She became very sick, and her +mother now persuaded her master to let the +girl come home for a while.</p> + +<p>Soon after Harriet entered her teens she +suffered a misfortune that embarrassed her +all the rest of her life. She had been hired +out as a field hand. It was the fall of the +year and the slaves were busy at such tasks +as husking corn and cleaning up wheat. +One of them ran away. He was found. The +overseer swore that he should be whipped +and called on Harriet and some others that +happened to be near to help tie him. She +refused, and as the slave made his escape she +placed herself in a door to help to stop pursuit +of him. The overseer caught up a two-pound +weight and threw it at the fugitive; +but it missed its mark and struck Harriet a +blow on the head that was almost fatal. Her +skull was broken and from this resulted a +pressure on her brain which all her life left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +her subject to fits of somnolency. Sometimes +these would come upon her in the +midst of a conversation or any task at which +she might be engaged; then after a while +the spell would pass and she could go on as +before.</p> + +<p>After Harriet recovered sufficiently from +her blow she lived for five or six years in +the home of one John Stewart, working at +first in the house but afterwards hiring her +time. She performed the most arduous +labor in order to get the fifty or sixty dollars +ordinarily exacted of a woman in her situation. +She drove oxen, plowed, cut wood, +and did many other such things. With her +firm belief in Providence, in her later years +she referred to this work as a blessing in +disguise as it gave her the firm constitution +necessary for the trials and hardships that +were before her. Sometimes she worked for +her father, who was a timber inspector and +superintended the cutting and hauling of +large quantities of timber for the Baltimore +ship-yards. Her regular task in this employment +was the cutting of half a cord of +wood a day.</p> + +<p>About 1844 Harriet was married to a free +man named John Tubman. She had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +children. Two years after her escape in +1849 she traveled back to Maryland for her +husband, only to find him married to another +woman and no longer caring to live with +her. She felt the blow keenly, but did not +despair and more and more gave her +thought to what was to be the great work +of her life.</p> + +<p>It was not long after her marriage that +Harriet began seriously to consider the matter +of escape from bondage. Already in +her mind her people were the Israelites in +the land of Egypt, and far off in the North +<i>somewhere</i> was the land of Canaan. In +1849 the master of her plantation died, and +word passed around that at any moment she +and two of her brothers were to be sold to +the far South. Harriet, now twenty-four +years old, resolved to put her long cherished +dreams into effect. She held a consultation +with her brothers and they decided to start +with her at once, that very night, for the +North. She could not go away, however, +without giving some intimation of her purpose +to the friends she was leaving behind. +As it was not advisable for slaves to be seen +too much talking together, she went among +her old associates singing as follows:</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<div class='poem'> +When dat ar ol' chariot comes<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I'm gwine to leabe you;</span><br /> +I'm boun' for de Promised Land;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Frien's, I'm gwine to leabe you.</span><br /> +<br /> +I'm sorry, frien's, to leabe you;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Farewell! oh, farewell!</span><br /> +But I'll meet you in de mornin';<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Farewell! oh, farewell!</span><br /> +<br /> +I'll meet you in de mornin'<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When you reach de Promised Land;</span><br /> +On de oder side of Jordan,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For I'm boun' for de Promised Land.</span><br /> +</div> + +<p>The brothers started with her; but the +way was unknown, the North was far +away, and they were constantly in terror +of recapture. They turned back, and Harriet, +after watching their retreating forms, +again fixed her eyes on the north star. +"I had reasoned dis out in my min'," said +she; "there was one of two things I had a +right to, liberty or death. If I could not +have one, I would have de other, for no man +should take me alive. I would fight for my +liberty as long as my strength lasted, and +when de time came for me to go, the Lord +would let them take me."</p> + +<p>"And so without money, and without +friends," says Mrs. Bradford, "she started +on through unknown regions; walking by +night, hiding by day, but always conscious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +of an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and of +fire by night, under the guidance of which +she journeyed or rested. Without knowing +whom to trust, or how near the pursuers +might be, she carefully felt her way, and by +her native cunning, or by God-given wisdom +she managed to apply to the right people for +food, and sometimes for shelter; though +often her bed was only the cold ground, and +her watchers the stars of night. After +many long and weary days of travel, she +found that she had passed the magic line +which then divided the land of bondage from +the land of freedom." At length she came to +Philadelphia, where she found work and the +opportunity to earn a little money. It was +at this time, in 1851, after she had been employed +for some months, that she went back +to Maryland for her husband only to find +that he had not been true.</p> + +<p>In December, 1850, she had visited Baltimore +and brought away a sister and two +children. A few months afterwards she took +away a brother and two other men. In December, +1851, she led out a party of eleven, +among them being another brother and his +wife. With these she journeyed to Canada, +for the Fugitive Slave Law was now in +force and, as she quaintly said, there was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +no safety except "under the paw of the +British Lion." The winter, however, was +hard on the poor fugitives, who unused to +the climate of Canada, had to chop wood in +the forests in the snow. Often they were +frost-bitten, hungry, and almost always +poorly clad. But Harriet was caring for +them. She kept house for her brother, and +the fugitives boarded with her. She begged +for them and prayed for them, and somehow +got them through the hard winter. In +the spring she returned to the States, as +usual working in hotels and families as a +cook. In 1852 she once more went to +Maryland, this time bringing away nine +fugitives.</p> + +<p>It must not be supposed that those who +started on the journey northward were +always strong-spirited characters. The +road was rough and attended by dangers +innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives grew +faint-hearted and wanted to turn back. +Then would come into play the pistol that +Harriet always carried with her. "Dead +niggers tell no tales," said she, pointing it +at them; "you go on or die!" By this heroic +method she forced many to go onward +and win the goal of freedom.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Unfailing was Harriet Tubman's confidence +in God. A customary form of prayer +for her was, "O Lord, you've been with me +in six troubles; be with me in the seventh." +On one of her journeys she came with a +party of fugitives to the home of a Negro +who had more than once assisted her and +whose house was one of the regular stations +on the so-called Underground Railroad. +Leaving her party a little distance away +Harriet went to the door and gave the peculiar +rap that was her regular signal. Not +meeting with a ready response, she knocked +several times. At length a window was +raised and a white man demanded roughly +what she wanted. When Harriet asked for +her friend she was informed that he had been +obliged to leave for assisting Negroes. +The situation was dangerous. Day was +breaking and something had to be done at +once. A prayer revealed to Harriet a place +of refuge. Outside of the town she remembered +that there was a little island in a +swamp, with much tall grass upon it. +Hither she conducted her party, carrying in +a basket two babies that had been drugged. +All were cold and hungry in the wet grass; +still Harriet prayed and waited for deliverance. +How relief came she never knew; she +felt that it was not necessarily her business<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +to know. After they had waited through +the day, however, at dusk there came slowly +along the pathway on the edge of the +swamp a man clad in the garb of a Quaker. +He seemed to be talking to himself, but +Harriet's sharp ears caught the words: "My +wagon stands in the barnyard of the next +farm across the way. The horse is in the +stable; the harness hangs on a nail;" and +then the man was gone. When night came +Harriet stole forth to the place designated, +and found not only the wagon but also +abundant provisions in it, so that the whole +party was soon on its way rejoicing. In the +next town dwelt a Quaker whom Harriet +knew and who readily took charge of the +horse and wagon for her.</p> + +<p>Naturally the work of such a woman +could not long escape the attention of the +abolitionists. She became known to Thomas +Garrett, the great-hearted Quaker of Wilmington, +who aided not less than three thousand +fugitives to escape, and also to Grit +Smith, Wendell Phillips, William H. +Seward, F. B. Sanborn, and many other +notable men interested in the emancipation +of the Negro. From time to time she was +supplied with money, but she never spent +this for her own use, setting it aside in case<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +of need on the next one of her journeys. +In her earlier years, however, before she +became known, she gave of her own slender +means for the work.</p> + +<p>Between 1852 and 1857 she made but one +or two journeys, because of the increasing +vigilance of slaveholders and the Fugitive +Slave Law. Great rewards were offered for +her capture and she was several times on the +point of being taken, but always escaped by +her shrewd wit and what she considered +warnings from heaven. While she was intensely +practical, she was also a most firm +believer in dreams. In 1857 she made her +most venturesome journey, this time taking +with her to the North her old parents who +were no longer able to walk such distances +as she was forced to go by night. Accordingly +she had to hire a wagon for them, and +it took all her ingenuity to get them through +Maryland and Delaware. At length, however, +she got them to Canada, where they +spent the winter. As the climate was too +rigorous, however, she afterwards brought +them down to New York, and settled them +in a home in Auburn, N. Y., that she had +purchased on very reasonable terms from +Secretary Seward. Somewhat later a mortgage +on the place had to be lifted and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +Harriet now made a noteworthy visit to +Boston, returning with a handsome sum +toward the payment of her debt. At this +time she met John Brown more than once, +seems to have learned something of his +plans, and after the raid at Harper's Ferry +and the execution of Brown she glorified +him as a hero, her veneration even becoming +religious. Her last visit to Maryland was +made in December, 1860, and in spite of the +agitated condition of the country and the +great watchfulness of slaveholders she +brought away with her seven fugitives, one +of them an infant.</p> + +<p>After the war Harriet Tubman made +Auburn her home, establishing there a refuge +for aged Negroes. She married again, +so that she is sometimes referred to as +Harriet Tubman Davis. She died at a very +advanced age March 10, 1913. On Friday, +June 12, 1914, a tablet in her honor was unveiled +at the Auditorium in Albany. It was +provided by the Cayuga County Historical +Association, Dr. Booker T. Washington +was the chief speaker of the occasion, and +the ceremonies were attended by a great +crowd of people.</p> + +<p>The tributes to this heroic woman were +remarkable. Wendell Phillips said of her:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +"In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps +few colonels, who have done more for +the loyal cause since the war began, and few +men who did before that time more for the +colored race than our fearless and most sagacious +friend, Harriet." F. B. Sanborn +wrote that what she did "could scarcely be +credited on the best authority." William H. +Seward, who labored, though unsuccessfully, +to get a pension for her granted by +Congress, consistently praised her noble +spirit. Abraham Lincoln gave her ready +audience and lent a willing ear to whatever +she had to say. Frederick Douglass wrote +to her: "The difference between us is very +marked. Most that I have done and suffered +in the service of our cause has been in +public, and I have received much encouragement +at every step of the way. You, on the +other hand, have labored in a private way. +I have wrought in the day—you in the night. +I have had the applause of the crowd and the +satisfaction that comes of being approved by +the multitude, while the most that you have +done has been witnessed by a few trembling, +scarred, and footsore bondmen and women, +whom you have led out of the house of bondage, +and whose heartfelt 'God bless you' has +been your only reward."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of such mould was Harriet Tubman, +philanthropist and patriot, bravest and noblest +of all the heroines of freedom.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="chap" /><div class="figcenter" style="width: 373px;"> +<img src="images/illus03.jpg" width="373" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">NORA A. GORDON</span> +</div><hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>NORA GORDON</h2> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2>III.</h2> + +<p>NORA GORDON</p> + + +<p>This is the story of a young woman who +had not more than ordinary advantages, but +who in our own day by her love for Christ +and her zeal in his service was swept from +her heroic labor into martyrdom.</p> + +<p>When Nora Gordon went from Spelman +Seminary as a missionary to the Congo, she +had the hope that in some little way she +might be used for the furtherance of the +Master's kingdom. She could hardly have +foreseen that she would start in her beloved +school a glorious tradition; and still less +could she have seen the marvellous changes +taking place in the Africa of the present. +She had boundless faith, however,—faith in +God and in the ultimate destiny of her people. +In that faith she lived, and for that +faith she died.</p> + +<p>Nora Antonia Gordon was born in Columbus, +Georgia, August 25, 1866. After<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a><br /><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +receiving her early education in the public +schools of La Grange, in the fall of 1882 she +came to Spelman Seminary. It was not +long before her life became representative +of the transforming power of Christianity. +Being asked, "Do you love Christ?" she answered +"Yes"; but when there came the +question, "Are you a Christian?" she replied +"No." It was not long, however, before she +gained firmer faith, and two months after +her entrance at Spelman she was definitely +converted. Now followed seven years of +intense activity and growth—of study, of +summer teaching, of talks before temperance +societies, of service of any possible +sort for the Master. She brought to Christ +every girl who was placed to room with her. +A classmate afterwards testified of her that +the girls always regarded Nora somewhat +differently from the others. She was the +counsellor of her friends, ever ready with +sweet words of comfort, and yet ever a +cheerful companion. In one home in which +she lived for a while she asked the privilege +of having prayer. The man of the house at +first refused to kneel and the woman seemed +not interested. In course of time, however, +the wife was won and then the man also +knelt. At another time she wrote, "Twenty-six +of my scholars were baptized to-day;"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +and a little later she said, "Ten more have +been added."</p> + +<p>In 1885 Nora Gordon completed her +course in the Industrial Department, in +1886 the Elementary Normal, and in 1888 +the Higher Normal Course. Her graduation +essay was on the rather old and sophomoric +subject, "The Influence of Woman +on National Character;" but in the intensity +of her convictions and her words there was +nothing ordinary. She said in part: "Let +no woman feel that life to her means simply +living; but let her rather feel that she has a +special mission assigned her, which none +other of God's creatures can perform. It +may be that she is placed in some rude little +hut as mother and wife; if so, she can dignify +her position by turning every hut into +a palace, and bringing not only her own +household, but the whole community, into +the sunlight of God's love. Such women are +often unnoticed by the world in general, and +do not receive the appreciation due them; +yet we believe such may be called God's +chosen agents." Finally, "we feel that +woman is under a twofold obligation to consecrate +her whole being to Christ. Our people +are to be educated and christianized and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +the heathen brought home to God. Woman +must take the lead in this great work."</p> + +<p>After her graduation in 1888 Nora Gordon +was appointed to teach in the public +schools of Atlanta. She soon resigned this +work, however, in the contemplation of the +great mission of her life. The secretary of +the Society of the West wrote to Spelman +to inquire if there was any one who could go +to assist Miss Fleming, a missionary at work +in Palabala in the Congo. Four names were +sent, and the choice of the board was Nora +A. Gordon. The definite appointment +came in January, 1889. On Sunday evening, +February 17, an impressive missionary +service was held in the chapel at Spelman. +Interesting items were given by the students +with reference to the slave-trade in East +Africa and the efforts being made for its +suppression, also with reference to Mohammedanism, +the spiritual awakening among +the Zulus, and the mission stations established, +especially those on the Congo. Several +letters were read, one from Miss Fleming +exciting the most intense interest; and +throughout the meeting was the thought +that Nora Gordon was also soon to go to +Africa. On March 6 a farewell service was +held, and attended by a great crowd of people,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +among them the whole family of the +consecrated young woman; and she sailed +March 16, 1889.</p> + +<p>First of all she went to London, tarrying +at the Missionary Training Institute conducted +by Rev. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. +Under date April 11 she wrote: "It +has been so trying to remain here so long +waiting. I feel that this is the dear Lord's +first lesson to me in patience. I am thankful +to say that I feel profited by my stay. +* * * * Yesterday coming from the +city we saw a number of flags hanging across +the street, and among them was the United +States flag. Never before did the Stars and +Stripes seem so beautiful. I am glad Miss +Grover put one in my box. * * * * I +do praise God for every step I get nearer +to my future home. We expect to sail next +Wednesday, April 17, from Rotterdam on +the steamer <i>African</i>, Dutch line. We hope +to get to the Congo in three weeks."</p> + +<p>For two years she labored at Palabala, +frequently writing letters home and occasionally +sending back to her beloved Spelman +a box of curios. Said she of those +among whom she worked: "When the people +are first gathered into a chapel for school<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +or religious services, it is sad and amusing +to see how hard they try to know just what +to do, a number sitting with their backs to +the preacher or teacher. When the teacher +reproves a child, every man, woman, and +child feels it his or her duty to yell out too +at the offender and tell him to obey the +teacher. Often in the midst of a sermon a +man in the congregation will call out to the +preacher, 'Take away your lies,' or 'We do +not believe you,' or 'How can this or that +be?' One of the first workers, after speaking +to a crowd of heathen, asked them all +to close their eyes and bow their heads while +he would pray to God. When the missionary +had finished his prayer and opened his +eyes, every person had stealthily left the +place." Then followed a detail of the atrocities +in the Congo and of the encounters between +the natives and the Belgian officers, +and last of all came the pertinent comment: +"The Congo missionary's work is twofold. +He must civilize, as well as Christianize, the +people."</p> + +<p>Early in 1891 Nora Gordon, sadly in need +of rest and refreshment, went from Palabala +for a little stay at Lukungu. Hither +had come Clara A. Howard, Spelman's +second representative, under appointment<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +of the Woman's Foreign Missionary Society +of the East. Lukungu is a station two +hundred and twenty miles from the mouth +of the Congo, in a populous district, and +was the center from which numerous other +schools and churches sprang. The work +was in charge of Mr. Hoste, an Englishman, +who, when Miss Gordon wrote of him +in 1894, had spent ten years on the Congo +without going home. Other men were associated +with him, while the elementary +schools, the care of the boys and girls, and +work among the women, naturally fell to +the women missionaries. A little later in +1891 Nora Gordon left Palabala permanently +to engage in the work at Lukungu. +Under date September 25 she wrote to her +friends back home: "Doubtless Clara has +told you of my change to this place. You +can not imagine how glad we are to be together +here. I have charge of the printing-office +and help in the afternoon school. I +am well, happy, and am enjoying my work. +In the office I have few conveniences and +really not the things we need. Mr. Hoste +has written the first arithmetic in this language +and I am now putting it up. I was +obliged to stop work on it to-day because +my figures in type gave out, and you know<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +we have no shops in this land. My boys in +the office are doing nicely."</p> + +<p>Thus she worked on for two years more—hoping, +praying, trusting. By 1893 her +health was in such condition that it was +deemed wise for her to return to America. +So she did, and she brought back two native +girls with her. All the while, however, +her chief thought was upon the work to +which she had given herself, and she constantly +looked forward to the time when she +might be able to go back to Africa. In 1895 +she became the wife of Rev. S. C. Gordon, +who was connected with the English Baptist +Mission at Stanley Pool. She sailed +with her husband from Boston in July and +reached the Congo again in August. The +station was unique. It was an old and well +established mission, the center of several +others in the surrounding country. It had +excellent brick houses, broad avenues and +good fruit-trees, and the students were +above the average in intelligence. But soon +the shadow fell. Nora Gordon herself saw +much of the well known Belgian atrocities +in the Congo. She saw houses burned and +the natives themselves driven out by the +state officials. They crossed over into the +French Congo; but hither Protestants were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +not allowed to come to preach to them. In +spite of the great heartache, however, and +declining health the heroic woman worked +on, giving to those for whom she labored her +tenderest love. Seven months after the +death of her second child a change was again +deemed necessary, and she once more turned +her face homeward. After two months in +Belgium and England she came again to +America, and to Spelman. But her strength +was now all spent. She died at Spelman +January 26, 1901. She was only thirty-four; +but who can measure in years the love +and faith, the hope and sorrow, of such a +life?</p> + +<p>Nora Gordon started a tradition, Spelman's +richest heritage. Three other graduates +followed her. Clara Howard was in +course of time forced by the severe fevers +to give up her work, and she now labors at +home in the service of her Alma Mater. +Ada Jackson became the second wife of +Rev. S. C. Gordon and also died in service. +Emma B. DeLany was commissioned in +1900 and still labors—in recent years with +larger and larger success—in Liberia. Within +two or three years of Nora Gordon's return +in 1893, moreover, not less than five native +African girls had come to Spelman. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +spirit still abides, and if the way were just +a little clearer doubtless many other graduates +would go. Even as it is, however, the +blessing to the school has been illimitable.</p> +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Such have been the workers, such the pioneers. +To what end is the love, the labor—the +loneliness, the yearning?</p> + +<p>It is now nearly five hundred years since +a prince of Portugal began the slave-trade +on the west coast of Africa. Within two +hundred years all of the leading countries +of western Europe had joined in the iniquitous +traffic, and when England in 1713 drew +up with France the Peace of Utrecht she +deemed the slave-trade of such importance +that she insisted upon an article that gave +her a practical monopoly of it. Before the +end of the eighteenth century, however, the +voice of conscience began to be heard in +England, and science also began to be interested +in the great undeveloped continent +lying to the South. It remained for the +work of David Livingstone, however, in the +middle of the nineteenth century really to +reveal Africa to the rest of the world. This +intrepid explorer and missionary in a remarkable +series of journeys not only traversed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +the continent from the extreme South +to Loanda on the West Coast and Quilimane +on the East Coast; he not only made +known the great lake system of Central +Africa; but he left behind him a memory +that has blessed everyone who has followed +in his steps. Largely as a result of his work +and that of his successor, Stanley, a great +congress met in Berlin in 1884 for the partition +of Africa among the great nations of +Europe. Unfortunately the diplomats at +this meeting were not actuated by the noble +impulses that had moved Livingstone, so +that more and more there was evident a mad +scramble for territory. France had already +gained a firm foothold in the northwest, and +England was not only firmly intrenched in +the South but had also established a rather +undefined protectorate over Egypt. Germany +now in 1884 entered the field and in +German East Africa, German Southwest +Africa, Kamerun, and the smaller territory +of Togoland in the West ultimately acquired +a total of nearly a million square +miles, or one-eleventh of the continent. All +of this she lost in the course of the recent +great war. Naturally she has desired to regain +this land, but at the time of writing +(November, 1918) there is no likelihood of +her doing so, a distinguished Englishman,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +Mr. Balfour, the foreign secretary, having +declared that under no circumstances can +Germany's African colonies be returned to +her, as such return would endanger the security +of the British empire, and that is to +say, the security of the world. This problem +is but typical of the larger political +questions that press for settlement in the +new Africa. Whatever the solution may be, +one or two facts stand out clearly. One is +that Africa can no longer rest in undisturbed +slumber. A terrible war, the most +ruinous in the history of humanity, has +strained to the utmost the resources of all +the great powers of the world. Where so +much has been spent it is not to be supposed +that the richest, the most fertile, land in +the world will indefinitely be allowed to remain +undeveloped. Along with material development +must go also the education and +the spiritual culture of the natives on a scale +undreamed of before. In this training such +an enlightened country as England will +naturally play a leading role, and America +too will doubtless be called on to help in +more ways than one. It must not be supposed, +however, that the task is not one of +enormous difficulties. As far as we have +advanced in our missionary activities in +America, we have hardly made a beginning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +in the great task of the proper development +of Africa. Here are approximately 175,000,000 +natives to be trained and Christianized. +Let us not make the common mistake +of supposing that they are all ignorant +and degraded savages. Nothing could be +farther from the truth. Many individuals +have had the benefit of travel and study in +Europe and more and more are themselves +appreciating the great problems before their +country. It is true, however, that the great +mass of the population is yet to be reached. +In the general development delicate questions +of racial contact are to be answered. +Unfortunately, in the attitude of the European +colonist toward the native, South +Africa has a race problem even more stern +than that of our own Southern states. As +for religion we not only find paganism and +Mohammedanism, but we also see Catholicism +arrayed against Protestantism, and +perhaps most interesting of all, a definite +movement toward the enhancement of a +native Ethiopian church, with the motto +"Africa for the Africans." Let us add to +all this numerous social problems, such as +polygamy, the widespread sale of rum, and +all the train of African superstition, and we +shall see that any one who works in Africa in +the new day must not only be a person of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +keen intelligence and Christian character, +but also one with some genuine vision and +statesmanship. Workers of this quality, if +they can be found, will be needed not by the +scores or hundreds, but by the thousands and +tens of thousands. No larger mission could +come to a young Negro in America trained +in Christian study than to make his or her +life a part of the redemption of the great +fatherland. The salvation of Africa is at +once the most pressing problem before either +the Negro race or the Kingdom of Christ. +Such a worker as we have tried to portray +was Nora Gordon. It is to be hoped that +not one but thousands like her will arise. +Even now we can see the beginning of the +fulfilment of the prophecy, "Princes shall +come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon +stretch out her hands unto God."</p> +<hr class="chapter" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span></p> + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 368px;"> +<img src="images/illus04.jpg" width="368" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">META WARRICK FULLER</span> +</div> + + + +<hr class="chapter" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> +<h2>META WARRICK FULLER</h2> + + + +<hr class="chapter" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<h2>IV.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>META WARRICK FULLER<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></div> + + +<p>The state of Massachusetts has always +been famous for its history and literature, +and especially rich in tradition is the region +around Boston. On one side is Charlestown, +visited yearly by thousands who make +a pilgrimage to the Bunker Hill Monument. +Across the Charles River is Cambridge, the +home of Harvard University, and Longfellow, +and Lowell, and numerous other +men whose work has become a part of the +nation's heritage. If one will ride on through +Cambridge and North Cambridge and Arlington, +he will come to Lexington, where +he will find in the little Lexington Common +one of the most charming spots of ground +in America. Overlooking this he will see +the Harrington House, and all around other +memorials of the Revolution. Taking the +car again and riding about seven miles more +he will come to Concord, and here he will +catch still more of the flavor of the eighteenth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +century. Walking from the center of +the town down Monument Street (he <i>must</i> +walk now; there is no trolley, and a carriage +or automobile does not permit one to linger +by the wayside), he will come after a while +to the Old Manse, once the home of Emerson +and of Hawthorne, and then see just around +the corner the Concord Bridge and the +statue of the Minute Man. There is a new +bridge now, one of concrete; the old wooden +one, so long beloved, at length became unsafe +and had to be replaced. In another +direction from the center of the town runs +Lexington Road, within about half a mile +down which one will see the later homes of +Emerson and Hawthorne as well as that +of Louisa May Alcott. Near the Alcott +House, back among the trees, is a quaint +little structure much like a Southern country +schoolhouse—the so-called Concord +School of Philosophy, in which Emerson +once spoke. It is all a beautiful country—beautiful +most of all for its unseen glory. +One gives himself up to reflection; he muses +on Evangeline and the Great Stone Face +and on the heroic dead who did not die in +vain—until a lumbering truck-car on the +road calls him back from it all to the workaday +world of men.</p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span></p> +<p>It is in this state of Massachusetts, so +rich in its tradition, that there resides the +subject of the present sketch. About halfway +between Boston and Worcester, in the +quiet, homelike town of Framingham, on a +winding road just off the main street, lives +Meta Warrick Fuller, the foremost sculptor +of the Negro race.</p> + +<p>There are three little boys in the family. +They keep their mother very busy; but they +also make her very happy. Buttons have +to be sewed on and dinners have to be prepared +for the children of an artist just as +well as for those of other people; and help +is not always easy to get. But the father, +Dr. S. C. Fuller, a distinguished physician, +is also interested in the boys, so that he too +helps, and the home is a happy one.</p> + +<p>At the top of the house is a long roomy +attic. This is an improvised studio—or, as +the sculptor would doubtless say, the workshop. +Hither, from the busy work of the +morning, comes the artist for an hour or +half an hour of modeling—for rest, and for +the first effort to transfer to the plastic clay +some fleeting transient dream.</p> + +<p>Meta Warrick Fuller was born in Philadelphia, +Pennsylvania, June 9, 1877. For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +four years she attended the Pennsylvania +School of Industrial Art, and it was at this +institution that she first began to force serious +recognition of her talent. Before very +long she began to be known as a sculptor +of the horrible, one of her first original +pieces being a head of Medusa, with a hanging +jaw, beads of gore, and eyes starting +from their sockets. At her graduation in +1898 she won a prize for metal work by a +crucifix upon which hung the figure of +Christ in agony, and she also won honorable +mention for her work in modeling. In a +post-graduate year she won a much coveted +prize in modeling. In 1899 Meta Warrick +(then best known by her full name, Meta +Vaux Warrick) went to Paris, where she +worked and studied three years. Her work +brought her in contact with many other artists, +among them Augustus St. Gaudens, +the sculptor of the Robert Gould Shaw +Monument at the head of Boston Common. +Then there came a day when by appointment +the young woman went to see Auguste +Rodin, who after years of struggle and dispraise +had finally won recognition as the +foremost sculptor in France if not in the +world. The great man glanced one after +another at the pieces that were presented to +him, without very evident interest. At<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span> +length, thrilled by the figure in "Silent +Sorrow," sometimes referred to as "Man +Eating His Heart Out," Rodin beamed +upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, +you <i>are</i> a sculptor; you have the +sense of form." With encouragement from +such a source the young artist worked with +renewed vigor, looking forward to the time +when something that she had produced +should win a place in the Salon, the great +national gallery in Paris. "The Wretched," +one of the artist's masterpieces, was exhibited +here in 1903, and along with it went +"The Impenitent Thief." This latter production +was demolished in 1904, after meeting +with various unhappy accidents. In the +form as presented, however, the thief, heroic +in size, hung on the cross torn by anguish. +Hardened, unsympathetic, and even +defiant, he still possessed some admirable +qualities of strength, and he has remained +one of the sculptor's most powerful conceptions. +In "The Wretched" seven figures +greet the eye. Each represents a different +form of human anguish. An old man, worn +by hunger and disease, waits for death. A +mother yearns for the loved ones she has +lost. A man bowed by shame fears to look +upon his fellow-creatures. A sick child +suffers from some hereditary taint. A youth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +is in despair, and a woman is crazed by sorrow. +Over all is the Philosopher who suffers +perhaps more keenly than the others as he +views the misery around them, and who, +powerless to relieve it, also sinks into despair.</p> + +<p>Other early productions were similarly +characterized by a strongly romantic quality. +"Silent Sorrow" has already been remarked +in passing. In this a man, worn and +gaunt and in despair, is represented as leaning +over and actually eating out his own +heart. "Man Carrying Dead Body" is in +similar vein. The sculptor is moved by the +thought of one who will be spurred on by +the impulse of duty to the performance of +some task not only unpleasant but even +loathsome. She shows a man bearing across +his shoulder the body of a comrade that has +evidently lain on the battlefield for days. +The thing is horrible, and the man totters +under the great weight; but he forces his +way onward until he can give it decent +burial. Another early production was +based on the ancient Greek story of Oedipus. +This story was somewhat as follows: +Oedipus was the son of Laius and Jocasta, +king and queen of Thebes. At his birth an +oracle foretold that the father Laius would<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +be killed by his son. The child was sent +away to be killed by exposure, but in course +of time was saved and afterwards adopted +by the King of Corinth. When he was +grown, being warned by an oracle that he +would kill his father and marry his mother, +he left home. On his journey he met Laius +and slew him in the course of an altercation. +Later, by solving the riddle of the sphinx, +he freed Thebes from distress, was made +king of the city, and married Jocasta. +Eventually the terrible truth of the relationship +became known to all. Jocasta +hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his +eyes. The sculptor portrays the hero of the +old legend at the very moment that he is thus +trying to punish himself for his crime. +There is nothing delicate or pretty about all +such work as this. It is grewsome in fact, +and horrible; but it is also strong and intense +and vital. Its merit was at once recognized +by the French, and it gave Meta +Warrick a recognized place among the +sculptors of America.</p> + +<p>On her return to America the artist resumed +her studies at the School of Industrial +Art, winning in 1904 the Battles first +prize for pottery. In 1907 she produced a +series of tableaux representing the advance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +of the Negro for the Jamestown Tercentennial +Exposition, and in 1913 a group for the +New York State Emancipation Proclamation +Commission. In 1909 she became the +wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, +Massachusetts. A fire in 1910 unfortunately +destroyed some of her most +valuable pieces while they were in storage +in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of +her early work, that happened to be elsewhere, +were saved. The artist was undaunted, +however, and by May, 1914, she +had sufficiently recovered from the blow to +be able to hold at her home a public exhibition +of her work.</p> + +<p>After this fire a new note crept into the +work of Meta Warrick Fuller. This was +doubtless due not so much to the fire itself +as to the larger conception of life that now +came to the sculptor with the new duties of +marriage and motherhood. From this time +forth it was not so much the romantic as the +social note that was emphasized. Representative +of the new influence was the second +model of the group for the Emancipation +Proclamation Commission. A recently +emancipated Negro youth and maiden stand +beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has +what looks almost like a human hand<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +stretched over them. Humanity is pushing +them forth into the world while at the same +time the hand of Destiny is restraining them +in the full exercise of their freedom. "Immigrant +in America" is in somewhat similar +vein. An American woman, the mother of +one strong healthy child, is shown welcoming +to the land of plenty the foreigner, the +mother of several poorly nourished children. +Closely related in subject is the smaller +piece, "The Silent Appeal," in which a +mother capable of producing and caring for +three sturdy children is shown as making a +quiet demand for the suffrage and for any +other privileges to which a human being is +entitled. All of these productions are clear +cut, straightforward, and dignified.</p> + +<p>In May, 1917, Meta Warrick Fuller took +second prize in a competition under the +auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the +Woman's Peace Party, her subject being +"Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War." +War is personified as on a mighty steed and +trampling to death numberless human beings. +In one hand he holds a spear on which +he has transfixed the head of one of his victims. +As he goes on his masterful career +Peace meets him and commands him to cease +his ravages. The work as exhibited was in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +gray-green wax and was a production of +most unusual spirit.</p> + +<p>Among other prominent titles are "Watching +for Dawn," a conception of remarkable +beauty and yearning, and "Mother and +Child." An early production somewhat detached +from other pieces is a head of John +the Baptist. This is one of the most haunting +creations of Mrs. Fuller. In it she was +especially successful in the infinite yearning +and pathos that she somehow managed to +give to the eyes of the seer. It bears the +unmistakable stamp of power.</p> + +<p>In this whole review of this sculptor's +work we have indicated only the chief +titles. She is an indefatigable worker and +has produced numerous smaller pieces, +many of these being naturally for commercial +purposes. As has been remarked, while +her work was at first romantic and often +even horrible, in recent years she has been +interested rather in social themes. There +are those, however, who hope that she will +not utterly forsake the field in which she +first became distinguished. Through the +sternness of her early work speaks the very +tragedy of the Negro race. In any case it +is pleasant to record that the foremost<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +sculptor of the race is not only an artist of +rank but also a woman who knows and appreciates +in the highest possible manner the +virtues and the beauties of the home.</p> +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 364px;"> +<img src="images/illus05.jpg" width="364" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">MARY McLEOD BETHUNE</span> +</div> +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + + + + +<h2>MARY McLEOD BETHUNE</h2> + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + + + +<h2>V.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>MARY McLEOD BETHUNE</div> + + +<p>On October 3, 1904, a lone woman, inspired +by the desire to do something for the +needy ones of her race and state, began at +Daytona, Florida, a training school for +Negro girls. She had only one dollar and +a half in money, but she had faith, energy, +and a heart full of love for her people. To-day +she has an institution worth not less +than one hundred thousand dollars, with +plans for extensive and immediate enlargement, +and her school is one of the best conducted +and most clear-visioned in the country. +Such has been the result of boundless +energy and thrift joined to an unwavering +faith in God.</p> + +<p>Mary McLeod was born July 10, 1875, in +a three-room log cabin on a little cotton and +rice farm about three miles from Mayesville, +South Carolina, being one in the large +family of Samuel and Patsy McLeod. Ambitious +even from her early years, she +yearned for larger and finer things than her +environment afforded; and yet even the life<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +that she saw around her was to prove a +blessing in disguise, as it gave to her deeper +and clearer insight into the problems, the +shortcomings, and the needs of her people. +In course of time she attended a little mission +school in Mayesville, and she was converted +at the age of twelve. Later she was +graduated at Scotia Seminary, Concord, +North Carolina, and then she went to the +Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In the +years of her schooling she received some assistance +from a scholarship given by Miss +Mary Chrisman, a dressmaker of Denver, +Colorado. Mary McLeod never forgot that +she had been helped by a working woman. +Some day she intended to justify that faith, +and time has shown that never was a scholarship +invested to better advantage.</p> + +<p>In 1898 Mary McLeod was married. She +became the mother of one son. Not long +after, the family moved to Palatka, Florida. +Now followed the hard years of waiting, of +praying, of hoping; but through it all the +earnest woman never lost faith in herself, +nor in God. She gained experience in a +little school that she taught, she sang with +unusual effect in the churches of the town, +and she took part in any forward movement +or uplift enterprise that she could. All the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span> +while, however, she knew that the big task +was yet to come. She prayed, and hoped, +and waited.</p> + +<p>By the fall of 1904 it seemed that the time +had come. In a little rented house, with five +girls, Mrs. Bethune began what is now the +Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute +for Negro Girls. By means of concerts and +festivals the first payment of five dollars was +made on the present site, then an old dump-pile. +With their own hands the teacher and +the pupils cleared away much of the rubbish, +and from the first they invited the co-operation +of the people around them by lending a +helping hand in any way they could, by +"being neighborly." In 1905 a Board of +Trustees was organized and the school was +chartered. In 1907 Faith Hall, a four-story +frame house, forty by fifty feet, was "prayed +up, sung up, and talked up;" and we can +understand at what a premium space was in +the earlier days when we know that this +building furnished dormitory accommodations +for teachers and students, dining-room, +reading room, storerooms, and bathrooms. +To the rear of Faith Hall was placed a two-story +structure containing the school kitchen +and the domestic science room. In 1909 the +school found it necessary to acquire a farm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span> +for the raising of live stock and vegetables +and for the practical outdoor training of the +girls. After six weeks of earnest work the +twelve-acre tract in front of the school was +purchased. In 1914 a Model Home was +built. In this year also an additional west +farm of six acres, on which was a two-story +frame building, was needed, asked for and +procured. In March, 1918, the labors of +fourteen years were crowned by the erection +and dedication of a spacious auditorium; +and among the speakers at the dedication +were the Governor of Florida and the Vice-President +of the United States. Efforts now +look forward to a great new dormitory for +the girls.</p> + +<p>Such a bare account of achievements, +however, by no means gives one an adequate +conception of the striving and the hopings +and the praying that have entered into the +work. To begin with, Daytona was a strategic +place for the school. There was no other +such school along the entire east coast of +Florida, and as a place of unusual beauty +and attractiveness the town was visited +throughout the winter by wealthy tourists. +From the very first, however, the girls were +trained in the virtues of the home, and in +self-help. Great emphasis was placed on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +domestic science, and not only for this as an +end in itself, but also as a means for the +larger training in cleanliness and thrift and +good taste. "We notice strawberries are +selling at fifty and sixty cents a quart," said +a visitor, "and you have a splendid patch. +Do you use them for your students or sell +them?" "We never eat a quart when we +can get fifty cents for them," was the reply. +"We can take fifty cents and buy a bone that +will make soup for us all, when a quart of +berries would supply only a few."</p> + +<p>For one interested in education few pictures +could be more beautiful than that of +the dining-room at the school in the morning +of a day in midterm. Florida is warm often +even in midwinter; nevertheless, rising at +five gives one a keen appetite for the early +breakfast. The ceiling is low and there are +other obvious disadvantages; but over all is +the spirit of good cheer and of home. The +tablecloths are very white and clean; flowers +are on the different tables; at the head of +each a teacher presides over five or six girls; +the food is nourishing and well-prepared; +and one leaves with the feeling that if he had +a sister or daughter he would like for her to +have the training of some such place as this.</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span></p> + +<p>Of such quality is the work that has been +built up; and all has been accomplished +through the remarkable personality of the +woman who is the head and the soul of every +effort. Indomitable courage, boundless energy, +fine tact and a sense of the fitness of +things, kindly spirit, and firm faith in God +have deservedly given her success. Beyond +the bounds of her immediate institution her +influence extends. About the year 1912 the +trustees felt the need of so extending the +work as to make the school something of a +community center; and thus arose the McLeod +Hospital and Training School for +Nurses. In 1912, moved by the utter neglect +of the children of the turpentine camp +at Tomoka, Mrs. Bethune started work for +them in a little house that she secured. The +aim was to teach the children to be clean and +truthful and helpful, to sew and to sweep +and to sing. A short school term was +started among them, and the mission serves +as an excellent practice school for the girls +of the senior class in the Training School. +A summer school and a playground have +also been started for the children in Daytona. +Nor have the boys and young men +been neglected. Here was a problem of +unusual difficulty. Any one who has looked +into the inner life of the small towns of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span> +Florida could not fail to be impressed by the +situation of the boys and young men. Hotel +life, a shifting tourist population, and a climate +of unusual seductiveness, have all left +their impress. On every side to the young +man beckons temptation, and in town after +town one finds not one decent recreation +center or uplifting social influence. Pool-rooms +abound, and the young man is blamed +for entering forbidden paths; but all too +often the Christian men and women of the +community have put forth no definite organized +effort for his uplift. All too often +there results a blasted life—a heartache for +a mother, or a ruined home for some young +woman. In Daytona, in 1913, on a lot near +the school campus, one of the trustees, Mr. +George S. Doane, erected a neat, commodious +building to be used in connection with +the extension work of the institution as a +general reading-room and home for the +Young Men's Christian Association; and +this is the only specific work so being done +for Negro boys in this section of the state. +A debating club, an athletic club, lecture +club, and prayer-meetings all serve as means +toward the physical, intellectual, and spiritual +development of the young men. A +"Better Boys Movement" is also making +progress and the younger boys are becoming<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +interested in canning and farming as +well as being cared for in their sports and +games.</p> + +<p>No sketch of this woman's work should +close without mention of her activities for +the nation at large. Red Cross work or a +Liberty Loan drive has alike called forth her +interest and her energy. She has appeared +on some great occasions and before distinguished +audiences, such as that for instance +in the Belasco Theatre in Washington in +December, 1917, when on a noteworthy patriotic +occasion she was the only representative +of her race to speak.</p> + +<p>Her girls have gone into many spheres of +life and have regularly made themselves +useful and desirable. Nearly two hundred +are now annually enrolled at the school. +The demand for them as teachers, seamstresses, +or cooks far exceeds the supply. In +great homes and humble, in country or in +town, in Daytona or elsewhere—North, +South, East, West—they remember the +motto of their teacher and of the Master of +all, "Not to be ministered unto but to minister;" +and year after year they accomplish +better and better things for the school that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span> +they love so well and through it for the +Kingdom of God.</p> + +<hr class="tb" /> + +<p>Two thousand years ago the Savior of +Mankind walked upon the earth, a man of +sorrows and acquainted with grief; and the +people hid as it were their faces from him. +But one day he went into the home of a +Pharisee and sat him down to meat. And a +woman of the city, when she knew that +Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, +brought an alabaster box of ointment, exceeding +precious, and began to wash his feet +with her tears, and did wipe them with the +hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and +anointed them with the ointment. And there +were some that had indignation among themselves, +and said, Why was this waste of the +ointment made? But Jesus said, Let her +alone. She hath wrought a good work on +me. She hath done what she could. Verily, +I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel +shall be preached throughout the whole +world, this also that she hath done shall be +spoken of for a memorial of her.</p> + +<p>To-day as well as centuries ago the Christ +is before us, around us, waiting. We do not +always know him, for he appears in disguise,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span> +as a little orphan, or a sick old woman, +or even perhaps as some one of high estate +but in need of prayer. Let us do what we +can. Let each one prove herself an earnest +follower. To such end is the effort of Mary +McLeod Bethune; and as we think of all +that she has done and is doing let us for our +own selves once more recall the beautiful +words of Sister Moore: "There is no place +too lowly or dark for our feet to enter, and +no place so high and bright but it needs the +touch of the light that we carry from the +Cross."</p> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span></p> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 367px;"> +<img src="images/illus06.jpg" width="367" height="600" alt="" /> +<span class="caption">MARY CHURCH TERRELL</span> +</div> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span></p> +<h2>MARY CHURCH TERRELL</h2> + + +<hr class="chap" /><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span></p> + + +<h2>VI.</h2> + +<div class='chaptertitle'>MARY CHURCH TERRELL</div> + + +<p>With the increasingly complex problems +of American civilization, woman is being +called on in ways before undreamed of to +bear a share in great public burdens. The +recent great war has demonstrated anew +the part that she is to play in our factories, +our relief work, our religious organizations—in +all the activities of our social and industrial +life. The broadening basis of the suffrage +in some states and the election of a +woman to a seat in Congress have also emphasized +the fact that in the new day woman +as well as man will have to bear the larger +responsibilities of citizenship. In all this +intense life the Negro woman has taken a +part, and she will have to do still more in the +future. Even before the Civil War there +were women of the race who labored, sometimes +in large ways, for the influencing of +sentiment and the salvation of their people. +In the present period of our country's history +new problems arise, sometimes even +more delicate than those that went before +them and even more difficult of solution—problems<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +of education, readjustment, and of +the proper moulding of public opinion. +They call for keen intelligence, broad information, +rich culture, and the ability to meet +men and women of other races and other +countries on the broad plane of cosmopolitanism. +In public life and in the higher +graces of society no woman of the race has +commanded more attention from the American +and the international public than Mary +Church Terrell.</p> + +<p>The life of this woman is an example of +the possibilities not only of Negro but of +American womanhood. She has appeared +on platforms with men and women of other +races, sometimes sturdy opponents on public +questions, and more than held her own. +She has attended an international congress +in Europe and surpassed all the other +women from her country in her ability to +address audiences in languages other than +English. With all this she has never forgotten +the religious impulse that is so +strong in the heart of her people and that +ultimately is to play so large a part in their +advancement. One admirer of her culture +has said, "She should be engaged to travel +over the country as a model of good manners +and good English."</p><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mary Church was born in Memphis, +Tennessee, the daughter of Robert R. and +Louisa Ayres Church. When she was yet +very young her parents sent her to Ohio to +be educated, and here she remained until +she was graduated from the classical course +in 1884. Then for two years she taught at +Wilberforce University in Ohio, and for one +year more in a high school in Washington. +Desirous of broadening her attainments, +however, she now went to Europe for a +period of study and travel. She remained +two years, spending the time in France, +Switzerland, Germany, and Italy, generally +improving herself in language. On her return +she resumed her work in Washington, +and she was offered the registrarship at +Oberlin College, a distinct compliment coming +as it did from an institution of such high +standing. She declined the attractive position, +however, because of her approaching +marriage to Robert H. Terrell, a graduate +of Harvard College and formerly principal +of a high school in Washington, who was +appointed to a judgeship in the District of +Columbia by President Roosevelt.</p> + +<p>Since her marriage Mrs. Terrell has written +much on topics of general interest and +from time to time has formally appeared as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +a public lecturer. One of her strongest articles +was that on Lynching in the <i>North +American Review</i> for June, 1904. The centenary +of the birth of Harriet Beecher +Stowe in 1912 found her unusually well +posted on the life and work of the novelist, +so that after she lectured many times on the +subject she brought together the results of +her study in an excellent pamphlet. She +was the first president of the National Association +of Colored Women's Clubs, was +twice re-elected, and, declining to serve further, +was made honorary president for life. +She was chosen as one of the speakers at the +International Congress of Women held in +Berlin in June, 1904. Said the <i>Washington +Post</i> of her performance on this occasion: +"The hit of the Congress on the part of the +American delegates was made by Mrs. +Mary Church Terrell of Washington, who +delivered one speech in German and another +in equally good French. Mrs. Terrell is a +colored woman who appears to have been +beyond every other of our delegates prominent +for her ability to make addresses in +other than her own language." In a letter +to some of the largest newspapers in the +country Mrs. Ida Husted Harper said further: +"This achievement on the part of a +colored woman, added to a fine appearance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +and the eloquence of her words, carried the +audience by storm and she had to respond +three times to the encores before they were +satisfied. It was more than a personal triumph; +it was a triumph for her race."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Terrell has ever exhibited an intense +interest in public affairs. On the occasion +of the discharge of the Negro soldiers +in Brownsville, Texas, in 1906, she at once +comprehended the tremendous issues involved +and by her interviews with men high +in the nation's life did much for the improvement +of a bad situation. When, some +years ago, Congress by resolution granted +power to the Commissioners of the District +of Columbia to appoint two women upon the +Board of Education for the public schools, +Mrs. Terrell was one of the women appointed. +She served on the Board for five +years with signal ability and unusual success, +and on the occasion of her resignation +in 1912 was given a magnificent testimonial +by her fellow-citizens.</p> + +<p>It would be difficult to record all the different +things that Mary Church Terrell has +done or the numerous ways in which she has +turned sentiment on the race problem. In +recent years she has been drawn more and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +more to her own home. She is in constant +demand as a speaker, however, and one or +two experiences or incidents must not pass +unremarked. In 1906 she was invited by +Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks to come to Cornell +University to deliver her address on the +Bright Side of the Race Problem. She was +introduced by Prof. F. A. Fetter of the Department +of Economics. When she had finished +her lecture she was greeted by deafening +applause, and then she was surrounded +by an eager crowd desirous of receiving an +introduction. One enthusiastic woman exclaimed, +as she warmly shook the speaker's +hand, "I was so glad to hear you say something +about the bright side, and—do you +know?—every Southern faculty woman was +here." A little later she was the guest of +honor at a reception in the home of Ex-Ambassador +Andrew D. White, the first +president of Cornell University.</p> + +<p>Just what Mary Church Terrell means as +an inspiration to the young women of the +Negro race one might have seen some years +ago if he could have been present at Spelman +Seminary on the occasion of the twenty-fifth +anniversary of this the largest school for +Negro girls in the world. She was preceded +on the program by one or two prominent<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +speakers who tried to take a broad view of +the race problem but who were plainly baffled +when they came face to face with Southern +prejudice. When Mrs. Terrell rose to +speak the air was tense with eagerness and +anxiety. How she acquitted herself on this +occasion, how eloquently she plead, and how +nimbly and delicately she met her opponents' +arguments, will never be forgotten by +any one who was privileged to hear her.</p> + +<p>The compliments that have been paid to +the eloquence, the grace, the culture, the +tact, and the poise of this woman are endless. +She exhibits exceptional attainments +either on or off the platform. Her words +bristle with earnestness and energy, quickly +captivating an audience or holding the +closest attention in conversation. Her gestures +are frequent, but always in sympathetic +harmony. Her face is inclined to be +sad in repose, but lights quickly and effectively +to the soul of whatever subject she +touches. Her voice is singularly clear and +free from harsh notes. She exhibits no apparent +effort in speaking, and at once impresses +an audience by her ease, her courage, +and her self-abnegation. Through all her +work moreover constantly thrills her great +hope for the young men and women of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span> +race, so many of whom she has personally +inspired.</p> + +<p>Such a woman is an asset to her country +and an honor to the race to which she belongs.</p> + + +<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> While this sketch is drawn from various sources, I feel +specially indebted to Sarah H. Bradford's "Harriet, the Moses +of Her People." This valuable work in turn includes a scholarly +article taken from the "Boston Commonwealth" of 1863 and +loaned to Mrs. Bradford by F. R. Sanborn. This article is really +the foundation of the sketch.—B. B.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> For the further pursuit of this and related subjects the +attention of the reader is invited to the author's "The Negro in +Literature and Art" (Duffield & Co., New York, N. Y., 1918).</p></div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Achievement, by Benjamin Brawley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 38783-h.htm or 38783-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/8/38783/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Women of Achievement + Written for the Fireside Schools + +Author: Benjamin Brawley + +Release Date: February 7, 2012 [EBook #38783] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + + + + +Women of Achievement + +Written for The Fireside Schools + +Under the auspices of the + +Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society + +by + +BENJAMIN BRAWLEY + +Dean of Morehouse College + + +Author of "A Short History of the American Negro," "The Negro in +Literature and Art," "Your Negro Neighbor," Etc. + + + + + Copyright, 1919 + by the + Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + I. Introduction.--The Negro Woman in American Life. + + II. Harriet Tubman. + + III. Nora Gordon. + + IV. Meta Warrick Fuller. + + V. Mary McLeod Bethune. + + VI. Mary Church Terrell. + + + + +[Illustration: JOANNA P. MOORE] + + + + +THE FIRESIDE SCHOOLS + + +The work of the Fireside Schools was begun in 1884 by Joanna P. Moore, +who was born in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1832, and +who died in Selma, Alabama, April 15, 1916. For fifty years Miss Moore +was well known as an earnest worker for the betterment of the Negro +people of the South. Beginning in the course of the Civil War, at Island +No. 10, in November, 1863, she gave herself untiringly to the work to +which she felt called. In 1864 she ministered to a group of people at +Helena, Arkansas. In 1868 she went to Lauderdale, Mississippi, to help +the Friends in an orphan asylum. While she was at one time left +temporarily in charge of the institution cholera broke out, and eleven +children died within one week; but she remained at her post until the +fury of the plague was abated. She spent nine years in the vicinity of +New Orleans, reading the Bible to those who could not read, writing +letters in search of lost ones, and especially caring for the helpless +old women that she met. In 1877 the Woman's American Baptist Home +Mission Society gave her its first commission. + +The object of the Fireside Schools is to secure the daily prayerful +study of God's word by having this read to parents and children +together; to teach parents and children, husbands and wives, their +respective duties one to another; to supply homes with good reading +matter; and also to inculcate temperance, industry, neighborly +helpfulness, and greater attention to the work of the church. The +publication of _Hope_, the organ of the Fireside Schools, was begun in +1885. Closely associated with the Schools are the Bible Bands, a single +band consisting of any two or three people in the same church or +neighborhood who meet to review the lessons in _Hope_ and to report and +plan Christian work. All the activities are under the general +supervision of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society, though +the special Fireside School headquarters are at 612 Gay Street, +Nashville, Tennessee. The present work is dedicated to the memory of +Joanna P. Moore, and to the wives and mothers and sisters, now happily +numbered by the thousands, who are engaged in the work of the Fireside +Schools. + + + + +I. + +INTRODUCTION. + +The Negro Woman in American Life + + +In the history of the Negro race in America no more heroic work has been +done than that performed by the Negro woman. The great responsibilities +of life have naturally drifted to the men; but who can measure the +patience, the love, the self-sacrifice of those who in a more humble way +have labored for their people and even in the midst of war striven most +earnestly to keep the home-fires burning? Even before emancipation a +strong character had made herself felt in more than one community; and +to-day, whether in public life, social service, education, missions, +business, literature, music, or even the professions and scholarship, +the Negro woman is making her way and reflecting credit upon a race that +for so many years now has been struggling to the light. + +It was but natural that those should first become known who were +interested in the uplift of the race. If we except such an unusual and +specially gifted spirit as Phillis Wheatley, we shall find that those +who most impressed the American public before the Civil War were the +ones who best identified themselves with the general struggle for +freedom. Outstanding was the famous lecturer, Sojourner Truth. This +remarkable woman was born of slave parents in the state of New York +about 1798. She recalled vividly in her later years the cold, damp +cellar-room in which slept the slaves of the family to which she +belonged, and where she was taught by her mother to repeat the Lord's +Prayer and to trust God at all times. When in the course of the process +of gradual emancipation in New York she became legally free in 1827, her +master refused to comply with the law. She left, but was pursued and +found. Rather than have her go back, however, a friend paid for her +services for the rest of the year. Then there came an evening when, +searching for one of her children that had been stolen and sold, she +found herself without a resting-place for the night. A Quaker family, +however, gave her lodging. Afterwards she went to New York City, joined +a Methodist church, and worked hard to improve her condition. Later, +having decided to leave New York for a lecture tour through the East, +she made a small bundle of her belongings and informed a friend that +her name was no longer _Isabella_, as she had been known, but +_Sojourner_. Afterwards, as she herself said, finding that she needed +two names she adopted _Truth_, because it was intended that she should +declare the truth to the people. She went on her way, lecturing to +people wherever she found them assembled and being entertained in many +aristocratic homes. She was entirely untaught in the schools, but tall +and of commanding presence, original, witty, and always suggestive. The +stories told about her are numberless; but she was ever moved by an +abiding trust in God, and she counted among her friends many of the most +distinguished Americans of her time. By her tact and her gift of song +she kept down ridicule, and by her fervor and faith she won many friends +for the anti-slavery cause. + +It was impossible of course for any single woman to carry on the +tradition of such a character as Sojourner Truth. She belonged to a +distinct epoch in the country's history, one in which the rights of the +Negro and the rights of woman in general were frequently discussed on +the same platform; and she passed--so far as her greatest influence was +concerned--with her epoch. In more recent years those women who have +represented the race before the larger public have been persons of more +training and culture, though it has been practically impossible for any +one to equal the native force and wit of Sojourner Truth. Outstanding in +recent years have been Mrs. Booker T. Washington and Mrs. Mary Church +Terrell. The spread of culture, however, and the general force of the +social emphasis have more and more led those who were interested in +social betterment to come together so that there might be the greater +effect from united effort. Thus we have had developing in almost all of +our cities and towns various clubs working for the good of the race, +whether the immediate aim was literary culture, an orphanage, an old +folks' home, the protection of working girls, or something else +similarly noble. Prominent among the pioneers in such work were Mrs. +Josephine St. Pierre Ruffin, of Boston, and Mrs. John T. Cook, of +Washington, D. C. No one can record exactly how much has been +accomplished by these organizations; in fact, the clubs range all the +way in effectiveness from one that is a dominating force in its town to +one that is struggling to get started. The result of the work, however, +would in any case sum up with an astonishing total. A report from +Illinois, fairly representative of the stronger work, mentioned the +following activities: "The Cairo hospital, fostered and under the +supervision of the Yates Club of Cairo; the Anna Field Home for Girls, +Peoria; Lincoln Old Folks' and Orphans' Home, founded by Mrs. Eva Monroe +and assisted by the Women's Club of Springfield; the Home for Aged and +Infirm Colored People, Chicago, founded by Mrs. Gabrella Smith and +others; the Amanda Smith Orphans' Home, Harvey; the Phillis Wheatley +Home for Wage-Earning Girls, of Chicago." In Alabama the State +Federation of Colored Women's Clubs has established and is supporting a +reformatory at Mt. Meigs for Negro boys, and the women are very +enthusiastic about the work. A beautiful and well ordered home for Negro +girls was established a few years ago in Virginia. Of the White Rose +Mission of New York we are told that it "has done much good. A large +number of needy ones have found shelter within its doors and have been +able to secure work of all kinds. This club has a committee to meet the +incoming steamers from the South and see that young women entering the +city as strangers are directed to proper homes." All such work is +touching in its tenderness and effectiveness. The National Association +of Colored Women's Clubs was founded in 1896. The organization has +become stronger and stronger until it is now a powerful and effective +one with hundreds of members. One of its recent activities has been the +purchase of the home of Frederick Douglass at Anacostia, D. C. + +In education, church life, and missions--special forms of social +service--we have only to look around us to see what the Negro woman is +accomplishing. Not only is she bearing the brunt of common school +education for the race; in more than one instance a strong character, +moved to do something, has started on a career of success a good +secondary or industrial school. Representative are the Voorhees Normal +and Industrial School, at Denmark, S. C., founded by Elizabeth C. +Wright; the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls, +founded by Mrs. M. M. Bethune; and the Mt. Meigs Institute, Mt. Meigs, +Alabama, founded by Miss Cornelia Bowen. Noteworthy for its special +missionary emphasis is the National Training School of Washington, of +which Miss Nannie H. Burroughs is the head. One of the most important +recent developments in education has been the appointment of a number +of young women as supervisors in county schools under the terms of the +will of Anna T. Jeanes, a Quaker lady of Philadelphia who left a +considerable sum of money for the improvement of the rural schools of +the South. In church work we all know the extent to which women have had +to bear the burden not only of the regular activities but also of the +numerous "rallies" that still so unfortunately afflict our churches. +Deserving of special mention in connection with social service is the +work of those who have labored under the auspices of the Young Women's +Christian Association, which has done so much for the moral well-being +of the great camps in the war. In foreign mission work one of the +educational institutions sustained primarily by Northern Baptist +agencies--Spelman Seminary--stands out with distinct prominence. Not +only has Spelman sent to Africa several of her daughters from this +country, the first one being Nora Gordon in 1889; she has also educated +several who have come to her from Africa, the first being Lena Clark, +and for these the hope has ever been that they would return to their own +country for their largest and most mature service. + +In the realm of business the Negro woman has stood side by side with her +husband in the rise to higher things. In almost every instance in which +a man has prospered, investigation will show that his advance was very +largely due to the faith, the patience, and the untiring effort of his +wife. Dr. B. T. Washington, in his book _The Negro in Business_, gave +several examples. One of the outstanding instances was in the story of +Junius G. Groves, famous potato grower of Edwardsville, Kansas. This man +moved from his original home in Kentucky to Kansas at the time of the +well-known "Exodus" of 1879, a migration movement which was even more +voluntary on the part of the Negro than the recent removal to the North +on the part of so many, this latter movement being in so many ways a +result of war conditions. Mr. Groves in course of time became a man of +large responsibilities and means. It is most interesting, however, to go +back to his early days of struggle. We read as follows: "Soon after +getting the crop planted Mr. Groves decided to marry. When he reached +this decision he had but seventy-five cents in cash, and had to borrow +enough to satisfy the demands of the law. But he knew well the worth and +common sense of the woman he was to marry. She was as poor in worldly +goods as himself; but their poverty did not discourage them in their +plans. * * * * During the whole season they worked with never-tiring +energy, early and late; with the result that when the crop had been +harvested and all debts paid they had cleared $125. Notwithstanding +their lack of many necessaries of life, to say nothing of comforts, they +decided to invest $50 of their earnings in a lot in Kansas City, Kansas. +They paid $25 for a milk cow, and kept the remaining $50 to be used in +the making of another crop." In the course of a few years Mr. Groves, +with the help of his wife, now the mother of a large family, gathered in +one year hundreds of thousands of bushels of white potatoes, surpassing +all other growers in the world. Similarly was the success of E. C. +Berry, a hotel-keeper of Athens, Ohio, due to his wife. "At night, after +his guests had fallen asleep, it was his custom to go around and gather +up their clothes and take them to his wife, who would add buttons which +were lacking, repair rents, and press the garments, after which Mr. +Berry would replace them in the guests' rooms. Guests who had received +such treatment returned again and brought their friends with them." In +course of time Mr. and Mrs. Berry came to own the leading hotel in +Athens, one of fifty rooms and of special favor with commercial +travelers. + +Such examples could be multiplied indefinitely. It is not only in such +spheres that the worth of the Negro woman has been shown, however. +Daily, in thousands of homes, in little stores and on humble farms, +effort just as heroic has been exerted, though the result is not always +so evident. On their own initiative also women are now engaging in large +enterprises. The most conspicuous example of material success is +undoubtedly Mme. C. J. Walker, of the Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing +Company, of Indianapolis and New York, a business that is now conducted +on a large scale and in accordance with the best business methods of +America. Important also in this connection is the very great +contribution that Negro women--very often those without education and +opportunity--are making in the ordinary industrial life of the country. +According to the census of 1910, 1,047,146, or 52 per cent. of those at +work, were either farmers or farm laborers, and 28 per cent. more were +either cooks or washerwomen. In other words, a total of exactly 80 per +cent. were doing some of the hardest and at the same time some of the +most necessary work in our home and industrial life. These are workers +whose worth has never been fully appreciated by the larger public, and +who needed the heavy demands of the great war to call attention to the +actual value of the service they were rendering. + +The changes in fact brought about within the last few years, largely as +a result of war conditions, are remarkable. As Mary E. Jackson, writing +in the _Crisis_, has said: "Indiana reports [Negro women] in glass +works; in Ohio they are found on the night shifts of glass works; they +have gone into the pottery works in Virginia; wood-working plants and +lumber yards have called for their help in Tennessee." She also quotes +Rachel S. Gallagher, of Cleveland, Ohio, as saying of the Negro women in +that city: "We find them on power sewing-machines, making caps, waists, +bags, and mops; we find them doing pressing and various hand operations +in these same shops. They are employed in knitting factories as winders, +in a number of laundries on mangles of every type, and in sorting and +marking. They are in paper box factories doing both hand and machine +work, in button factories on the button machines, in packing houses +packing meat, in railroad yards wiping and cleaning engines, and doing +sorting in railroad shops. One of our workers recently found two colored +girls on a knotting machine in a bed spring factory, putting the knots +in the wire springs." + +In the professions, such as medicine and law, and in scholarship as +well, the Negro woman has blazed a path. One year after Oberlin College +in Ohio was founded in 1833, thirty years before the issuing of the +Emancipation Proclamation, the trustees took the advanced ground of +admitting Negro men and women on equal terms with other students. Of the +Northern colleges and universities Oberlin still leads in the number of +its Negro women graduates, but in recent years other such institutions +as Radcliffe, Wellesley, Columbia, and Chicago have been represented in +an increasing number by those who have finished their work creditably +and even with distinction in many instances. More and more each year are +young women at these institutions going forward to the attainment of the +higher scholastic degrees. In connection with medicine we recall the +work in the war of the Negro woman in the related profession of nursing. +It was only after considerable discussion that she was given a genuine +opportunity in Red Cross work, but she at once vindicated herself. In +the legal profession she has not only been admitted to practice in +various places, but has also been appointed to public office. It must be +understood that such positions as those just remarked are not secured +without a struggle, but all told they indicate that the race through its +womanhood is more and more taking part in the general life of the +country. + +In keeping with the romantic quality of the race it was but natural that +from the first there should have been special effort at self-expression +in literature, music, and other forms of art. The first Negro woman to +strike the public imagination was Phillis Wheatley, who even as a young +girl wrote acceptable verse. Her _Poems on Various Subjects_ published +in 1773 at once attracted attention, and it was fitting that the first +Negro woman to become distinguished in America should be one of +outstanding piety and nobility of soul. Just a few years before the +Civil War Frances Ellen Watkins, better known as Mrs. F. E. W. Harper, +entered upon her career as a writer of popular poetry. At the present +time attention centers especially upon Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson, who +early in 1918 produced in _The Heart of a Woman_ a little volume of +delicate and poignantly beautiful verse, and from whom greater and +greater things are expected, as she not only has the temperament of an +artist but has also undergone a period of severe training in her chosen +field. In the wider field of prose--including especially stories, +essays, and sketches--Mrs. Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson is prominent. In +1899 she produced _The Goodness of St. Rocque, and other stories_, and +since then has continued her good work in various ways. The whole field +of literature is a wide one, one naturally appealing to many of the +younger women, and one that with all its difficulties and lack of +financial return does offer some genuine reward to the candidate who is +willing to work hard and who does not seek a short cut to fame. + +In music the race has produced more women of distinction than in any +other field. This was natural, for the Negro voice is world famous. The +pity is that all too frequently some of the most capable young women +have not had the means to cultivate their talents and hence have fallen +by the wayside. Some day it is to be hoped that a great philanthropist +will endow a real conservatory at which such persons may find some +genuine opportunity and encouragement in their development in their days +of struggle. In spite of all the difficulties, however, there have been +singers who have risen to very high things in their art. Even before the +Civil War the race produced one of the first rank in Elizabeth Taylor +Greenfield, who came into prominence in 1851. This artist, born in +Mississippi, was taken to Philadelphia and there cared for by a Quaker +lady. The young woman did not soon reveal her gift to her friend, +thinking that it might be frowned upon as something too worldly. Her +guardian learned of it by accident, however, and one day surprised her +by asking, "Elizabeth, is it true that thee can sing?" "Yes," replied +the young woman in confusion. "Let me hear thee." And Elizabeth sang; +and her friend, realizing that she had a voice of the first quality, +proceeded to give her the best instruction that it was possible to get. +Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield had a marvelous voice embracing twenty-seven +notes, reaching from the sonorous bass of a baritone to the highest +soprano. A voice with a range of more than three octaves naturally +attracted much attention in both England and America, and comparisons +with Jenny Lind, then at the height of her great fame, were frequent. +In the next generation arose Madame Selika, a cultured singer of the +first rank, and one who by her arias and operatic work generally, as +well as by her mastery of language, won great success on the continent +of Europe as well as in England and America. The careers of some later +singers are so recent as to be still fresh in the public memory; some in +fact may still be heard. It was in 1887 that Flora Batson entered on the +period of her greatest success. She was a ballad singer and her work at +its best was of the sort that sends an audience into the wildest +enthusiasm. In a series of temperance meetings in New York she sang for +ninety consecutive nights, with never-failing effect, one song, "Six +Feet of Earth Make Us All One Size." Her voice exhibited a compass of +three octaves, but even more important than its range was its remarkable +sympathetic quality. Early in the last decade of the century appeared +also Mrs. Sissieretta Jones, whose voice at once commanded attention as +one of unusual richness and volume, and as one exhibiting especially the +plaintive quality ever present in the typical Negro voice. + +At the present time there are several promising singers; and there are +also those who in various ways are working for the general advancement +of the race in music. Mrs. E. Azalia Hackley, for some years prominent +as a concert soprano, has recently given her time most largely to the +work of teaching and showing the capabilities of the Negro voice. +Possessed of a splendid musical temperament, she has enjoyed the benefit +of three years of foreign study and generally inspired many younger +singers or performers. Prominent among many excellent pianists is Mrs. +Hazel Harrison Anderson, who also has studied much abroad and who has +appeared in many noteworthy recitals. Mrs. Maud Cuney Hare, of Boston, a +concert pianist, has within the last few years given several excellent +lecture-recitals dealing with Afro-American music. + +As between painting and sculpture the women of the race have shown a +decided preference for sculpture. While there are some students of +promise, no woman has as yet achieved distinction on work of really +professional quality in the realm of painting. On the other hand there +have been three or four sculptors of genuine merit. As early as 1865 +Edmonia Lewis began to attract attention by her busts of prominent +people. Within the last few years the work of Mrs. May Howard Jackson, +of Washington, has attracted the attention of the discerning; and that +of Mrs. Meta Warrick Fuller is reserved for special comment. + +Any such review as this naturally has its limitations. We can indicate +only a few of the outstanding individuals here and there. At least +enough has been said, however, to show that the Negro woman is making +her way at last into every phase of noble endeavor. In the pages that +follow we shall attempt to set forth at somewhat greater length the life +and work of a few of those whose achievement has been most signal and +whose interest in their sisters has been unfailing. + + + + +[Illustration: + +IN MEMORY OF + +HARRIET TUBMAN + +BORN A SLAVE IN MARYLAND ABOUT 1821 DIED IN AUBURN, N.Y. MARCH 10TH, +1913 + +CALLED THE "MOSES" OF HER PEOPLE. DURING THE CIVIL WAR, WITH RARE +COURAGE, SHE LED OVER THREE HUNDRED NEGROES UP FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM, +AND RENDERED INVALUABLE SERVICE AS NURSE AND SPY. + +WITH IMPLICIT TRUST IN GOD SHE BRAVED EVERY DANGER AND OVERCAME EVERY +OBSTACLE, WITHAL SHE POSSESSED EXTRAORDINARY FORESIGHT AND JUDGMENT SO +THAT SHE TRUTHFULLY SAID-- + +"ON MY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD I NEBBER RUN MY TRAIN OFF DE TRACK AND I +NEBBER LOS' A PASSENGER." + + * * * * * + + THIS TABLET IS ERECTED + BY THE CITIZENS OF AUBURN + .1914. + +Used through courtesy of John Williams, Inc., Bronze Foundry and Iron +Works, New York, N. Y.] + + + + +HARRIET TUBMAN + + + + +II. + +HARRIET TUBMAN[A] + + +Greatest of all the heroines of anti-slavery was Harriet Tubman. This +brave woman not only escaped from bondage herself, but afterwards made +nineteen distinct trips to the South, especially to Maryland, and +altogether aided more than three hundred souls in escaping from their +fetters. + +Araminta Ross, better known by the Christian name _Harriet_ that she +adopted, and her married name of _Tubman_, was born about 1821 in +Dorchester County, on the eastern shore of Maryland, the daughter of +Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene, both of whom were slaves, but who were +privileged to be able to live their lives in a state of singular +fidelity. Harriet had ten brothers and sisters, not less than three of +whom she rescued from slavery; and in 1857, at great risk to herself, +she also took away to the North her aged father and mother. + +When Harriet was not more than six years old she was taken away from her +mother and sent ten miles away to learn the trade of weaving. Among +other things she was set to the task of watching muskrat traps, which +work compelled her to wade much in water. Once she was forced to work +when she was already ill with the measles. She became very sick, and her +mother now persuaded her master to let the girl come home for a while. + +Soon after Harriet entered her teens she suffered a misfortune that +embarrassed her all the rest of her life. She had been hired out as a +field hand. It was the fall of the year and the slaves were busy at such +tasks as husking corn and cleaning up wheat. One of them ran away. He +was found. The overseer swore that he should be whipped and called on +Harriet and some others that happened to be near to help tie him. She +refused, and as the slave made his escape she placed herself in a door +to help to stop pursuit of him. The overseer caught up a two-pound +weight and threw it at the fugitive; but it missed its mark and struck +Harriet a blow on the head that was almost fatal. Her skull was broken +and from this resulted a pressure on her brain which all her life left +her subject to fits of somnolency. Sometimes these would come upon her +in the midst of a conversation or any task at which she might be +engaged; then after a while the spell would pass and she could go on as +before. + +After Harriet recovered sufficiently from her blow she lived for five or +six years in the home of one John Stewart, working at first in the house +but afterwards hiring her time. She performed the most arduous labor in +order to get the fifty or sixty dollars ordinarily exacted of a woman in +her situation. She drove oxen, plowed, cut wood, and did many other such +things. With her firm belief in Providence, in her later years she +referred to this work as a blessing in disguise as it gave her the firm +constitution necessary for the trials and hardships that were before +her. Sometimes she worked for her father, who was a timber inspector and +superintended the cutting and hauling of large quantities of timber for +the Baltimore ship-yards. Her regular task in this employment was the +cutting of half a cord of wood a day. + +About 1844 Harriet was married to a free man named John Tubman. She had +no children. Two years after her escape in 1849 she traveled back to +Maryland for her husband, only to find him married to another woman and +no longer caring to live with her. She felt the blow keenly, but did not +despair and more and more gave her thought to what was to be the great +work of her life. + +It was not long after her marriage that Harriet began seriously to +consider the matter of escape from bondage. Already in her mind her +people were the Israelites in the land of Egypt, and far off in the +North _somewhere_ was the land of Canaan. In 1849 the master of her +plantation died, and word passed around that at any moment she and two +of her brothers were to be sold to the far South. Harriet, now +twenty-four years old, resolved to put her long cherished dreams into +effect. She held a consultation with her brothers and they decided to +start with her at once, that very night, for the North. She could not go +away, however, without giving some intimation of her purpose to the +friends she was leaving behind. As it was not advisable for slaves to be +seen too much talking together, she went among her old associates +singing as follows: + + When dat ar ol' chariot comes + I'm gwine to leabe you; + I'm boun' for de Promised Land; + Frien's, I'm gwine to leabe you. + + I'm sorry, frien's, to leabe you; + Farewell! oh, farewell! + But I'll meet you in de mornin'; + Farewell! oh, farewell! + + I'll meet you in de mornin' + When you reach de Promised Land; + On de oder side of Jordan, + For I'm boun' for de Promised Land. + +The brothers started with her; but the way was unknown, the North was +far away, and they were constantly in terror of recapture. They turned +back, and Harriet, after watching their retreating forms, again fixed +her eyes on the north star. "I had reasoned dis out in my min'," said +she; "there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death. If +I could not have one, I would have de other, for no man should take me +alive. I would fight for my liberty as long as my strength lasted, and +when de time came for me to go, the Lord would let them take me." + +"And so without money, and without friends," says Mrs. Bradford, "she +started on through unknown regions; walking by night, hiding by day, but +always conscious of an invisible pillar of cloud by day, and of fire by +night, under the guidance of which she journeyed or rested. Without +knowing whom to trust, or how near the pursuers might be, she carefully +felt her way, and by her native cunning, or by God-given wisdom she +managed to apply to the right people for food, and sometimes for +shelter; though often her bed was only the cold ground, and her watchers +the stars of night. After many long and weary days of travel, she found +that she had passed the magic line which then divided the land of +bondage from the land of freedom." At length she came to Philadelphia, +where she found work and the opportunity to earn a little money. It was +at this time, in 1851, after she had been employed for some months, that +she went back to Maryland for her husband only to find that he had not +been true. + +In December, 1850, she had visited Baltimore and brought away a sister +and two children. A few months afterwards she took away a brother and +two other men. In December, 1851, she led out a party of eleven, among +them being another brother and his wife. With these she journeyed to +Canada, for the Fugitive Slave Law was now in force and, as she quaintly +said, there was no safety except "under the paw of the British Lion." +The winter, however, was hard on the poor fugitives, who unused to the +climate of Canada, had to chop wood in the forests in the snow. Often +they were frost-bitten, hungry, and almost always poorly clad. But +Harriet was caring for them. She kept house for her brother, and the +fugitives boarded with her. She begged for them and prayed for them, and +somehow got them through the hard winter. In the spring she returned to +the States, as usual working in hotels and families as a cook. In 1852 +she once more went to Maryland, this time bringing away nine fugitives. + +It must not be supposed that those who started on the journey northward +were always strong-spirited characters. The road was rough and attended +by dangers innumerable. Sometimes the fugitives grew faint-hearted and +wanted to turn back. Then would come into play the pistol that Harriet +always carried with her. "Dead niggers tell no tales," said she, +pointing it at them; "you go on or die!" By this heroic method she +forced many to go onward and win the goal of freedom. + +Unfailing was Harriet Tubman's confidence in God. A customary form of +prayer for her was, "O Lord, you've been with me in six troubles; be +with me in the seventh." On one of her journeys she came with a party of +fugitives to the home of a Negro who had more than once assisted her and +whose house was one of the regular stations on the so-called Underground +Railroad. Leaving her party a little distance away Harriet went to the +door and gave the peculiar rap that was her regular signal. Not meeting +with a ready response, she knocked several times. At length a window was +raised and a white man demanded roughly what she wanted. When Harriet +asked for her friend she was informed that he had been obliged to leave +for assisting Negroes. The situation was dangerous. Day was breaking and +something had to be done at once. A prayer revealed to Harriet a place +of refuge. Outside of the town she remembered that there was a little +island in a swamp, with much tall grass upon it. Hither she conducted +her party, carrying in a basket two babies that had been drugged. All +were cold and hungry in the wet grass; still Harriet prayed and waited +for deliverance. How relief came she never knew; she felt that it was +not necessarily her business to know. After they had waited through the +day, however, at dusk there came slowly along the pathway on the edge of +the swamp a man clad in the garb of a Quaker. He seemed to be talking to +himself, but Harriet's sharp ears caught the words: "My wagon stands in +the barnyard of the next farm across the way. The horse is in the +stable; the harness hangs on a nail;" and then the man was gone. When +night came Harriet stole forth to the place designated, and found not +only the wagon but also abundant provisions in it, so that the whole +party was soon on its way rejoicing. In the next town dwelt a Quaker +whom Harriet knew and who readily took charge of the horse and wagon for +her. + +Naturally the work of such a woman could not long escape the attention +of the abolitionists. She became known to Thomas Garrett, the +great-hearted Quaker of Wilmington, who aided not less than three +thousand fugitives to escape, and also to Grit Smith, Wendell Phillips, +William H. Seward, F. B. Sanborn, and many other notable men interested +in the emancipation of the Negro. From time to time she was supplied +with money, but she never spent this for her own use, setting it aside +in case of need on the next one of her journeys. In her earlier years, +however, before she became known, she gave of her own slender means for +the work. + +Between 1852 and 1857 she made but one or two journeys, because of the +increasing vigilance of slaveholders and the Fugitive Slave Law. Great +rewards were offered for her capture and she was several times on the +point of being taken, but always escaped by her shrewd wit and what she +considered warnings from heaven. While she was intensely practical, she +was also a most firm believer in dreams. In 1857 she made her most +venturesome journey, this time taking with her to the North her old +parents who were no longer able to walk such distances as she was forced +to go by night. Accordingly she had to hire a wagon for them, and it +took all her ingenuity to get them through Maryland and Delaware. At +length, however, she got them to Canada, where they spent the winter. As +the climate was too rigorous, however, she afterwards brought them down +to New York, and settled them in a home in Auburn, N. Y., that she had +purchased on very reasonable terms from Secretary Seward. Somewhat later +a mortgage on the place had to be lifted and Harriet now made a +noteworthy visit to Boston, returning with a handsome sum toward the +payment of her debt. At this time she met John Brown more than once, +seems to have learned something of his plans, and after the raid at +Harper's Ferry and the execution of Brown she glorified him as a hero, +her veneration even becoming religious. Her last visit to Maryland was +made in December, 1860, and in spite of the agitated condition of the +country and the great watchfulness of slaveholders she brought away with +her seven fugitives, one of them an infant. + +After the war Harriet Tubman made Auburn her home, establishing there a +refuge for aged Negroes. She married again, so that she is sometimes +referred to as Harriet Tubman Davis. She died at a very advanced age +March 10, 1913. On Friday, June 12, 1914, a tablet in her honor was +unveiled at the Auditorium in Albany. It was provided by the Cayuga +County Historical Association, Dr. Booker T. Washington was the chief +speaker of the occasion, and the ceremonies were attended by a great +crowd of people. + +The tributes to this heroic woman were remarkable. Wendell Phillips said +of her: "In my opinion there are few captains, perhaps few colonels, +who have done more for the loyal cause since the war began, and few men +who did before that time more for the colored race than our fearless and +most sagacious friend, Harriet." F. B. Sanborn wrote that what she did +"could scarcely be credited on the best authority." William H. Seward, +who labored, though unsuccessfully, to get a pension for her granted by +Congress, consistently praised her noble spirit. Abraham Lincoln gave +her ready audience and lent a willing ear to whatever she had to say. +Frederick Douglass wrote to her: "The difference between us is very +marked. Most that I have done and suffered in the service of our cause +has been in public, and I have received much encouragement at every step +of the way. You, on the other hand, have labored in a private way. I +have wrought in the day--you in the night. I have had the applause of +the crowd and the satisfaction that comes of being approved by the +multitude, while the most that you have done has been witnessed by a few +trembling, scarred, and footsore bondmen and women, whom you have led +out of the house of bondage, and whose heartfelt 'God bless you' has +been your only reward." + +Of such mould was Harriet Tubman, philanthropist and patriot, bravest +and noblest of all the heroines of freedom. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] While this sketch is drawn from various sources, I feel specially +indebted to Sarah H. Bradford's "Harriet, the Moses of Her People." This +valuable work in turn includes a scholarly article taken from the +"Boston Commonwealth" of 1863 and loaned to Mrs. Bradford by F. R. +Sanborn. This article is really the foundation of the sketch.--B. B. + + + + +[Illustration: NORA A. GORDON] + + + + +NORA GORDON + + + + +III. + +NORA GORDON + + +This is the story of a young woman who had not more than ordinary +advantages, but who in our own day by her love for Christ and her zeal +in his service was swept from her heroic labor into martyrdom. + +When Nora Gordon went from Spelman Seminary as a missionary to the +Congo, she had the hope that in some little way she might be used for +the furtherance of the Master's kingdom. She could hardly have foreseen +that she would start in her beloved school a glorious tradition; and +still less could she have seen the marvellous changes taking place in +the Africa of the present. She had boundless faith, however,--faith in +God and in the ultimate destiny of her people. In that faith she lived, +and for that faith she died. + +Nora Antonia Gordon was born in Columbus, Georgia, August 25, 1866. +After receiving her early education in the public schools of La Grange, +in the fall of 1882 she came to Spelman Seminary. It was not long before +her life became representative of the transforming power of +Christianity. Being asked, "Do you love Christ?" she answered "Yes"; but +when there came the question, "Are you a Christian?" she replied "No." +It was not long, however, before she gained firmer faith, and two months +after her entrance at Spelman she was definitely converted. Now followed +seven years of intense activity and growth--of study, of summer +teaching, of talks before temperance societies, of service of any +possible sort for the Master. She brought to Christ every girl who was +placed to room with her. A classmate afterwards testified of her that +the girls always regarded Nora somewhat differently from the others. She +was the counsellor of her friends, ever ready with sweet words of +comfort, and yet ever a cheerful companion. In one home in which she +lived for a while she asked the privilege of having prayer. The man of +the house at first refused to kneel and the woman seemed not interested. +In course of time, however, the wife was won and then the man also +knelt. At another time she wrote, "Twenty-six of my scholars were +baptized to-day;" and a little later she said, "Ten more have been +added." + +In 1885 Nora Gordon completed her course in the Industrial Department, +in 1886 the Elementary Normal, and in 1888 the Higher Normal Course. Her +graduation essay was on the rather old and sophomoric subject, "The +Influence of Woman on National Character;" but in the intensity of her +convictions and her words there was nothing ordinary. She said in part: +"Let no woman feel that life to her means simply living; but let her +rather feel that she has a special mission assigned her, which none +other of God's creatures can perform. It may be that she is placed in +some rude little hut as mother and wife; if so, she can dignify her +position by turning every hut into a palace, and bringing not only her +own household, but the whole community, into the sunlight of God's love. +Such women are often unnoticed by the world in general, and do not +receive the appreciation due them; yet we believe such may be called +God's chosen agents." Finally, "we feel that woman is under a twofold +obligation to consecrate her whole being to Christ. Our people are to be +educated and christianized and the heathen brought home to God. Woman +must take the lead in this great work." + +After her graduation in 1888 Nora Gordon was appointed to teach in the +public schools of Atlanta. She soon resigned this work, however, in the +contemplation of the great mission of her life. The secretary of the +Society of the West wrote to Spelman to inquire if there was any one who +could go to assist Miss Fleming, a missionary at work in Palabala in the +Congo. Four names were sent, and the choice of the board was Nora A. +Gordon. The definite appointment came in January, 1889. On Sunday +evening, February 17, an impressive missionary service was held in the +chapel at Spelman. Interesting items were given by the students with +reference to the slave-trade in East Africa and the efforts being made +for its suppression, also with reference to Mohammedanism, the spiritual +awakening among the Zulus, and the mission stations established, +especially those on the Congo. Several letters were read, one from Miss +Fleming exciting the most intense interest; and throughout the meeting +was the thought that Nora Gordon was also soon to go to Africa. On March +6 a farewell service was held, and attended by a great crowd of people, +among them the whole family of the consecrated young woman; and she +sailed March 16, 1889. + +First of all she went to London, tarrying at the Missionary Training +Institute conducted by Rev. and Mrs. H. Grattan Guinness. Under date +April 11 she wrote: "It has been so trying to remain here so long +waiting. I feel that this is the dear Lord's first lesson to me in +patience. I am thankful to say that I feel profited by my stay. * * * * +Yesterday coming from the city we saw a number of flags hanging across +the street, and among them was the United States flag. Never before did +the Stars and Stripes seem so beautiful. I am glad Miss Grover put one +in my box. * * * * I do praise God for every step I get nearer to my +future home. We expect to sail next Wednesday, April 17, from Rotterdam +on the steamer _African_, Dutch line. We hope to get to the Congo in +three weeks." + +For two years she labored at Palabala, frequently writing letters home +and occasionally sending back to her beloved Spelman a box of curios. +Said she of those among whom she worked: "When the people are first +gathered into a chapel for school or religious services, it is sad and +amusing to see how hard they try to know just what to do, a number +sitting with their backs to the preacher or teacher. When the teacher +reproves a child, every man, woman, and child feels it his or her duty +to yell out too at the offender and tell him to obey the teacher. Often +in the midst of a sermon a man in the congregation will call out to the +preacher, 'Take away your lies,' or 'We do not believe you,' or 'How can +this or that be?' One of the first workers, after speaking to a crowd of +heathen, asked them all to close their eyes and bow their heads while he +would pray to God. When the missionary had finished his prayer and +opened his eyes, every person had stealthily left the place." Then +followed a detail of the atrocities in the Congo and of the encounters +between the natives and the Belgian officers, and last of all came the +pertinent comment: "The Congo missionary's work is twofold. He must +civilize, as well as Christianize, the people." + +Early in 1891 Nora Gordon, sadly in need of rest and refreshment, went +from Palabala for a little stay at Lukungu. Hither had come Clara A. +Howard, Spelman's second representative, under appointment of the +Woman's Foreign Missionary Society of the East. Lukungu is a station two +hundred and twenty miles from the mouth of the Congo, in a populous +district, and was the center from which numerous other schools and +churches sprang. The work was in charge of Mr. Hoste, an Englishman, +who, when Miss Gordon wrote of him in 1894, had spent ten years on the +Congo without going home. Other men were associated with him, while the +elementary schools, the care of the boys and girls, and work among the +women, naturally fell to the women missionaries. A little later in 1891 +Nora Gordon left Palabala permanently to engage in the work at Lukungu. +Under date September 25 she wrote to her friends back home: "Doubtless +Clara has told you of my change to this place. You can not imagine how +glad we are to be together here. I have charge of the printing-office +and help in the afternoon school. I am well, happy, and am enjoying my +work. In the office I have few conveniences and really not the things we +need. Mr. Hoste has written the first arithmetic in this language and I +am now putting it up. I was obliged to stop work on it to-day because my +figures in type gave out, and you know we have no shops in this land. +My boys in the office are doing nicely." + +Thus she worked on for two years more--hoping, praying, trusting. By +1893 her health was in such condition that it was deemed wise for her to +return to America. So she did, and she brought back two native girls +with her. All the while, however, her chief thought was upon the work to +which she had given herself, and she constantly looked forward to the +time when she might be able to go back to Africa. In 1895 she became the +wife of Rev. S. C. Gordon, who was connected with the English Baptist +Mission at Stanley Pool. She sailed with her husband from Boston in July +and reached the Congo again in August. The station was unique. It was an +old and well established mission, the center of several others in the +surrounding country. It had excellent brick houses, broad avenues and +good fruit-trees, and the students were above the average in +intelligence. But soon the shadow fell. Nora Gordon herself saw much of +the well known Belgian atrocities in the Congo. She saw houses burned +and the natives themselves driven out by the state officials. They +crossed over into the French Congo; but hither Protestants were not +allowed to come to preach to them. In spite of the great heartache, +however, and declining health the heroic woman worked on, giving to +those for whom she labored her tenderest love. Seven months after the +death of her second child a change was again deemed necessary, and she +once more turned her face homeward. After two months in Belgium and +England she came again to America, and to Spelman. But her strength was +now all spent. She died at Spelman January 26, 1901. She was only +thirty-four; but who can measure in years the love and faith, the hope +and sorrow, of such a life? + +Nora Gordon started a tradition, Spelman's richest heritage. Three other +graduates followed her. Clara Howard was in course of time forced by the +severe fevers to give up her work, and she now labors at home in the +service of her Alma Mater. Ada Jackson became the second wife of Rev. S. +C. Gordon and also died in service. Emma B. DeLany was commissioned in +1900 and still labors--in recent years with larger and larger +success--in Liberia. Within two or three years of Nora Gordon's return +in 1893, moreover, not less than five native African girls had come to +Spelman. The spirit still abides, and if the way were just a little +clearer doubtless many other graduates would go. Even as it is, however, +the blessing to the school has been illimitable. + + * * * * * + +Such have been the workers, such the pioneers. To what end is the love, +the labor--the loneliness, the yearning? + +It is now nearly five hundred years since a prince of Portugal began the +slave-trade on the west coast of Africa. Within two hundred years all of +the leading countries of western Europe had joined in the iniquitous +traffic, and when England in 1713 drew up with France the Peace of +Utrecht she deemed the slave-trade of such importance that she insisted +upon an article that gave her a practical monopoly of it. Before the end +of the eighteenth century, however, the voice of conscience began to be +heard in England, and science also began to be interested in the great +undeveloped continent lying to the South. It remained for the work of +David Livingstone, however, in the middle of the nineteenth century +really to reveal Africa to the rest of the world. This intrepid explorer +and missionary in a remarkable series of journeys not only traversed +the continent from the extreme South to Loanda on the West Coast and +Quilimane on the East Coast; he not only made known the great lake +system of Central Africa; but he left behind him a memory that has +blessed everyone who has followed in his steps. Largely as a result of +his work and that of his successor, Stanley, a great congress met in +Berlin in 1884 for the partition of Africa among the great nations of +Europe. Unfortunately the diplomats at this meeting were not actuated by +the noble impulses that had moved Livingstone, so that more and more +there was evident a mad scramble for territory. France had already +gained a firm foothold in the northwest, and England was not only firmly +intrenched in the South but had also established a rather undefined +protectorate over Egypt. Germany now in 1884 entered the field and in +German East Africa, German Southwest Africa, Kamerun, and the smaller +territory of Togoland in the West ultimately acquired a total of nearly +a million square miles, or one-eleventh of the continent. All of this +she lost in the course of the recent great war. Naturally she has +desired to regain this land, but at the time of writing (November, 1918) +there is no likelihood of her doing so, a distinguished Englishman, Mr. +Balfour, the foreign secretary, having declared that under no +circumstances can Germany's African colonies be returned to her, as such +return would endanger the security of the British empire, and that is to +say, the security of the world. This problem is but typical of the +larger political questions that press for settlement in the new Africa. +Whatever the solution may be, one or two facts stand out clearly. One is +that Africa can no longer rest in undisturbed slumber. A terrible war, +the most ruinous in the history of humanity, has strained to the utmost +the resources of all the great powers of the world. Where so much has +been spent it is not to be supposed that the richest, the most fertile, +land in the world will indefinitely be allowed to remain undeveloped. +Along with material development must go also the education and the +spiritual culture of the natives on a scale undreamed of before. In this +training such an enlightened country as England will naturally play a +leading role, and America too will doubtless be called on to help in +more ways than one. It must not be supposed, however, that the task is +not one of enormous difficulties. As far as we have advanced in our +missionary activities in America, we have hardly made a beginning in +the great task of the proper development of Africa. Here are +approximately 175,000,000 natives to be trained and Christianized. Let +us not make the common mistake of supposing that they are all ignorant +and degraded savages. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Many +individuals have had the benefit of travel and study in Europe and more +and more are themselves appreciating the great problems before their +country. It is true, however, that the great mass of the population is +yet to be reached. In the general development delicate questions of +racial contact are to be answered. Unfortunately, in the attitude of the +European colonist toward the native, South Africa has a race problem +even more stern than that of our own Southern states. As for religion we +not only find paganism and Mohammedanism, but we also see Catholicism +arrayed against Protestantism, and perhaps most interesting of all, a +definite movement toward the enhancement of a native Ethiopian church, +with the motto "Africa for the Africans." Let us add to all this +numerous social problems, such as polygamy, the widespread sale of rum, +and all the train of African superstition, and we shall see that any one +who works in Africa in the new day must not only be a person of keen +intelligence and Christian character, but also one with some genuine +vision and statesmanship. Workers of this quality, if they can be found, +will be needed not by the scores or hundreds, but by the thousands and +tens of thousands. No larger mission could come to a young Negro in +America trained in Christian study than to make his or her life a part +of the redemption of the great fatherland. The salvation of Africa is at +once the most pressing problem before either the Negro race or the +Kingdom of Christ. Such a worker as we have tried to portray was Nora +Gordon. It is to be hoped that not one but thousands like her will +arise. Even now we can see the beginning of the fulfilment of the +prophecy, "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch +out her hands unto God." + + + + +[Illustration: META WARRICK FULLER] + + + + +META WARRICK FULLER + + + + +IV. + +META WARRICK FULLER[B] + + +The state of Massachusetts has always been famous for its history and +literature, and especially rich in tradition is the region around +Boston. On one side is Charlestown, visited yearly by thousands who make +a pilgrimage to the Bunker Hill Monument. Across the Charles River is +Cambridge, the home of Harvard University, and Longfellow, and Lowell, +and numerous other men whose work has become a part of the nation's +heritage. If one will ride on through Cambridge and North Cambridge and +Arlington, he will come to Lexington, where he will find in the little +Lexington Common one of the most charming spots of ground in America. +Overlooking this he will see the Harrington House, and all around other +memorials of the Revolution. Taking the car again and riding about seven +miles more he will come to Concord, and here he will catch still more of +the flavor of the eighteenth century. Walking from the center of the +town down Monument Street (he _must_ walk now; there is no trolley, and +a carriage or automobile does not permit one to linger by the wayside), +he will come after a while to the Old Manse, once the home of Emerson +and of Hawthorne, and then see just around the corner the Concord Bridge +and the statue of the Minute Man. There is a new bridge now, one of +concrete; the old wooden one, so long beloved, at length became unsafe +and had to be replaced. In another direction from the center of the town +runs Lexington Road, within about half a mile down which one will see +the later homes of Emerson and Hawthorne as well as that of Louisa May +Alcott. Near the Alcott House, back among the trees, is a quaint little +structure much like a Southern country schoolhouse--the so-called +Concord School of Philosophy, in which Emerson once spoke. It is all a +beautiful country--beautiful most of all for its unseen glory. One gives +himself up to reflection; he muses on Evangeline and the Great Stone +Face and on the heroic dead who did not die in vain--until a lumbering +truck-car on the road calls him back from it all to the workaday world +of men. + +It is in this state of Massachusetts, so rich in its tradition, that +there resides the subject of the present sketch. About halfway between +Boston and Worcester, in the quiet, homelike town of Framingham, on a +winding road just off the main street, lives Meta Warrick Fuller, the +foremost sculptor of the Negro race. + +There are three little boys in the family. They keep their mother very +busy; but they also make her very happy. Buttons have to be sewed on and +dinners have to be prepared for the children of an artist just as well +as for those of other people; and help is not always easy to get. But +the father, Dr. S. C. Fuller, a distinguished physician, is also +interested in the boys, so that he too helps, and the home is a happy +one. + +At the top of the house is a long roomy attic. This is an improvised +studio--or, as the sculptor would doubtless say, the workshop. Hither, +from the busy work of the morning, comes the artist for an hour or half +an hour of modeling--for rest, and for the first effort to transfer to +the plastic clay some fleeting transient dream. + +Meta Warrick Fuller was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 9, +1877. For four years she attended the Pennsylvania School of Industrial +Art, and it was at this institution that she first began to force +serious recognition of her talent. Before very long she began to be +known as a sculptor of the horrible, one of her first original pieces +being a head of Medusa, with a hanging jaw, beads of gore, and eyes +starting from their sockets. At her graduation in 1898 she won a prize +for metal work by a crucifix upon which hung the figure of Christ in +agony, and she also won honorable mention for her work in modeling. In a +post-graduate year she won a much coveted prize in modeling. In 1899 +Meta Warrick (then best known by her full name, Meta Vaux Warrick) went +to Paris, where she worked and studied three years. Her work brought her +in contact with many other artists, among them Augustus St. Gaudens, the +sculptor of the Robert Gould Shaw Monument at the head of Boston Common. +Then there came a day when by appointment the young woman went to see +Auguste Rodin, who after years of struggle and dispraise had finally won +recognition as the foremost sculptor in France if not in the world. The +great man glanced one after another at the pieces that were presented to +him, without very evident interest. At length, thrilled by the figure +in "Silent Sorrow," sometimes referred to as "Man Eating His Heart Out," +Rodin beamed upon the young woman and said, "Mademoiselle, you _are_ a +sculptor; you have the sense of form." With encouragement from such a +source the young artist worked with renewed vigor, looking forward to +the time when something that she had produced should win a place in the +Salon, the great national gallery in Paris. "The Wretched," one of the +artist's masterpieces, was exhibited here in 1903, and along with it +went "The Impenitent Thief." This latter production was demolished in +1904, after meeting with various unhappy accidents. In the form as +presented, however, the thief, heroic in size, hung on the cross torn by +anguish. Hardened, unsympathetic, and even defiant, he still possessed +some admirable qualities of strength, and he has remained one of the +sculptor's most powerful conceptions. In "The Wretched" seven figures +greet the eye. Each represents a different form of human anguish. An old +man, worn by hunger and disease, waits for death. A mother yearns for +the loved ones she has lost. A man bowed by shame fears to look upon his +fellow-creatures. A sick child suffers from some hereditary taint. A +youth is in despair, and a woman is crazed by sorrow. Over all is the +Philosopher who suffers perhaps more keenly than the others as he views +the misery around them, and who, powerless to relieve it, also sinks +into despair. + +Other early productions were similarly characterized by a strongly +romantic quality. "Silent Sorrow" has already been remarked in passing. +In this a man, worn and gaunt and in despair, is represented as leaning +over and actually eating out his own heart. "Man Carrying Dead Body" is +in similar vein. The sculptor is moved by the thought of one who will be +spurred on by the impulse of duty to the performance of some task not +only unpleasant but even loathsome. She shows a man bearing across his +shoulder the body of a comrade that has evidently lain on the +battlefield for days. The thing is horrible, and the man totters under +the great weight; but he forces his way onward until he can give it +decent burial. Another early production was based on the ancient Greek +story of Oedipus. This story was somewhat as follows: Oedipus was the +son of Laius and Jocasta, king and queen of Thebes. At his birth an +oracle foretold that the father Laius would be killed by his son. The +child was sent away to be killed by exposure, but in course of time was +saved and afterwards adopted by the King of Corinth. When he was grown, +being warned by an oracle that he would kill his father and marry his +mother, he left home. On his journey he met Laius and slew him in the +course of an altercation. Later, by solving the riddle of the sphinx, he +freed Thebes from distress, was made king of the city, and married +Jocasta. Eventually the terrible truth of the relationship became known +to all. Jocasta hanged herself and Oedipus tore out his eyes. The +sculptor portrays the hero of the old legend at the very moment that he +is thus trying to punish himself for his crime. There is nothing +delicate or pretty about all such work as this. It is grewsome in fact, +and horrible; but it is also strong and intense and vital. Its merit was +at once recognized by the French, and it gave Meta Warrick a recognized +place among the sculptors of America. + +On her return to America the artist resumed her studies at the School of +Industrial Art, winning in 1904 the Battles first prize for pottery. In +1907 she produced a series of tableaux representing the advance of the +Negro for the Jamestown Tercentennial Exposition, and in 1913 a group +for the New York State Emancipation Proclamation Commission. In 1909 she +became the wife of Dr. Solomon C. Fuller, of Framingham, Massachusetts. +A fire in 1910 unfortunately destroyed some of her most valuable pieces +while they were in storage in Philadelphia. Only a few examples of her +early work, that happened to be elsewhere, were saved. The artist was +undaunted, however, and by May, 1914, she had sufficiently recovered +from the blow to be able to hold at her home a public exhibition of her +work. + +After this fire a new note crept into the work of Meta Warrick Fuller. +This was doubtless due not so much to the fire itself as to the larger +conception of life that now came to the sculptor with the new duties of +marriage and motherhood. From this time forth it was not so much the +romantic as the social note that was emphasized. Representative of the +new influence was the second model of the group for the Emancipation +Proclamation Commission. A recently emancipated Negro youth and maiden +stand beneath a gnarled, decapitated tree that has what looks almost +like a human hand stretched over them. Humanity is pushing them forth +into the world while at the same time the hand of Destiny is restraining +them in the full exercise of their freedom. "Immigrant in America" is in +somewhat similar vein. An American woman, the mother of one strong +healthy child, is shown welcoming to the land of plenty the foreigner, +the mother of several poorly nourished children. Closely related in +subject is the smaller piece, "The Silent Appeal," in which a mother +capable of producing and caring for three sturdy children is shown as +making a quiet demand for the suffrage and for any other privileges to +which a human being is entitled. All of these productions are clear cut, +straightforward, and dignified. + +In May, 1917, Meta Warrick Fuller took second prize in a competition +under the auspices of the Massachusetts Branch of the Woman's Peace +Party, her subject being "Peace Halting the Ruthlessness of War." War is +personified as on a mighty steed and trampling to death numberless human +beings. In one hand he holds a spear on which he has transfixed the head +of one of his victims. As he goes on his masterful career Peace meets +him and commands him to cease his ravages. The work as exhibited was in +gray-green wax and was a production of most unusual spirit. + +Among other prominent titles are "Watching for Dawn," a conception of +remarkable beauty and yearning, and "Mother and Child." An early +production somewhat detached from other pieces is a head of John the +Baptist. This is one of the most haunting creations of Mrs. Fuller. In +it she was especially successful in the infinite yearning and pathos +that she somehow managed to give to the eyes of the seer. It bears the +unmistakable stamp of power. + +In this whole review of this sculptor's work we have indicated only the +chief titles. She is an indefatigable worker and has produced numerous +smaller pieces, many of these being naturally for commercial purposes. +As has been remarked, while her work was at first romantic and often +even horrible, in recent years she has been interested rather in social +themes. There are those, however, who hope that she will not utterly +forsake the field in which she first became distinguished. Through the +sternness of her early work speaks the very tragedy of the Negro race. +In any case it is pleasant to record that the foremost sculptor of the +race is not only an artist of rank but also a woman who knows and +appreciates in the highest possible manner the virtues and the beauties +of the home. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[B] For the further pursuit of this and related subjects the attention +of the reader is invited to the author's "The Negro in Literature and +Art" (Duffield & Co., New York, N. Y., 1918). + + + + +[Illustration: MARY McLEOD BETHUNE] + + + + +MARY McLEOD BETHUNE + + + + +V. + +MARY McLEOD BETHUNE + + +On October 3, 1904, a lone woman, inspired by the desire to do something +for the needy ones of her race and state, began at Daytona, Florida, a +training school for Negro girls. She had only one dollar and a half in +money, but she had faith, energy, and a heart full of love for her +people. To-day she has an institution worth not less than one hundred +thousand dollars, with plans for extensive and immediate enlargement, +and her school is one of the best conducted and most clear-visioned in +the country. Such has been the result of boundless energy and thrift +joined to an unwavering faith in God. + +Mary McLeod was born July 10, 1875, in a three-room log cabin on a +little cotton and rice farm about three miles from Mayesville, South +Carolina, being one in the large family of Samuel and Patsy McLeod. +Ambitious even from her early years, she yearned for larger and finer +things than her environment afforded; and yet even the life that she +saw around her was to prove a blessing in disguise, as it gave to her +deeper and clearer insight into the problems, the shortcomings, and the +needs of her people. In course of time she attended a little mission +school in Mayesville, and she was converted at the age of twelve. Later +she was graduated at Scotia Seminary, Concord, North Carolina, and then +she went to the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago. In the years of her +schooling she received some assistance from a scholarship given by Miss +Mary Chrisman, a dressmaker of Denver, Colorado. Mary McLeod never +forgot that she had been helped by a working woman. Some day she +intended to justify that faith, and time has shown that never was a +scholarship invested to better advantage. + +In 1898 Mary McLeod was married. She became the mother of one son. Not +long after, the family moved to Palatka, Florida. Now followed the hard +years of waiting, of praying, of hoping; but through it all the earnest +woman never lost faith in herself, nor in God. She gained experience in +a little school that she taught, she sang with unusual effect in the +churches of the town, and she took part in any forward movement or +uplift enterprise that she could. All the while, however, she knew that +the big task was yet to come. She prayed, and hoped, and waited. + +By the fall of 1904 it seemed that the time had come. In a little rented +house, with five girls, Mrs. Bethune began what is now the Daytona +Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Girls. By means of concerts +and festivals the first payment of five dollars was made on the present +site, then an old dump-pile. With their own hands the teacher and the +pupils cleared away much of the rubbish, and from the first they invited +the co-operation of the people around them by lending a helping hand in +any way they could, by "being neighborly." In 1905 a Board of Trustees +was organized and the school was chartered. In 1907 Faith Hall, a +four-story frame house, forty by fifty feet, was "prayed up, sung up, +and talked up;" and we can understand at what a premium space was in the +earlier days when we know that this building furnished dormitory +accommodations for teachers and students, dining-room, reading room, +storerooms, and bathrooms. To the rear of Faith Hall was placed a +two-story structure containing the school kitchen and the domestic +science room. In 1909 the school found it necessary to acquire a farm +for the raising of live stock and vegetables and for the practical +outdoor training of the girls. After six weeks of earnest work the +twelve-acre tract in front of the school was purchased. In 1914 a Model +Home was built. In this year also an additional west farm of six acres, +on which was a two-story frame building, was needed, asked for and +procured. In March, 1918, the labors of fourteen years were crowned by +the erection and dedication of a spacious auditorium; and among the +speakers at the dedication were the Governor of Florida and the +Vice-President of the United States. Efforts now look forward to a great +new dormitory for the girls. + +Such a bare account of achievements, however, by no means gives one an +adequate conception of the striving and the hopings and the praying that +have entered into the work. To begin with, Daytona was a strategic place +for the school. There was no other such school along the entire east +coast of Florida, and as a place of unusual beauty and attractiveness +the town was visited throughout the winter by wealthy tourists. From the +very first, however, the girls were trained in the virtues of the home, +and in self-help. Great emphasis was placed on domestic science, and +not only for this as an end in itself, but also as a means for the +larger training in cleanliness and thrift and good taste. "We notice +strawberries are selling at fifty and sixty cents a quart," said a +visitor, "and you have a splendid patch. Do you use them for your +students or sell them?" "We never eat a quart when we can get fifty +cents for them," was the reply. "We can take fifty cents and buy a bone +that will make soup for us all, when a quart of berries would supply +only a few." + +For one interested in education few pictures could be more beautiful +than that of the dining-room at the school in the morning of a day in +midterm. Florida is warm often even in midwinter; nevertheless, rising +at five gives one a keen appetite for the early breakfast. The ceiling +is low and there are other obvious disadvantages; but over all is the +spirit of good cheer and of home. The tablecloths are very white and +clean; flowers are on the different tables; at the head of each a +teacher presides over five or six girls; the food is nourishing and +well-prepared; and one leaves with the feeling that if he had a sister +or daughter he would like for her to have the training of some such +place as this. + +Of such quality is the work that has been built up; and all has been +accomplished through the remarkable personality of the woman who is the +head and the soul of every effort. Indomitable courage, boundless +energy, fine tact and a sense of the fitness of things, kindly spirit, +and firm faith in God have deservedly given her success. Beyond the +bounds of her immediate institution her influence extends. About the +year 1912 the trustees felt the need of so extending the work as to make +the school something of a community center; and thus arose the McLeod +Hospital and Training School for Nurses. In 1912, moved by the utter +neglect of the children of the turpentine camp at Tomoka, Mrs. Bethune +started work for them in a little house that she secured. The aim was to +teach the children to be clean and truthful and helpful, to sew and to +sweep and to sing. A short school term was started among them, and the +mission serves as an excellent practice school for the girls of the +senior class in the Training School. A summer school and a playground +have also been started for the children in Daytona. Nor have the boys +and young men been neglected. Here was a problem of unusual difficulty. +Any one who has looked into the inner life of the small towns of +Florida could not fail to be impressed by the situation of the boys and +young men. Hotel life, a shifting tourist population, and a climate of +unusual seductiveness, have all left their impress. On every side to the +young man beckons temptation, and in town after town one finds not one +decent recreation center or uplifting social influence. Pool-rooms +abound, and the young man is blamed for entering forbidden paths; but +all too often the Christian men and women of the community have put +forth no definite organized effort for his uplift. All too often there +results a blasted life--a heartache for a mother, or a ruined home for +some young woman. In Daytona, in 1913, on a lot near the school campus, +one of the trustees, Mr. George S. Doane, erected a neat, commodious +building to be used in connection with the extension work of the +institution as a general reading-room and home for the Young Men's +Christian Association; and this is the only specific work so being done +for Negro boys in this section of the state. A debating club, an +athletic club, lecture club, and prayer-meetings all serve as means +toward the physical, intellectual, and spiritual development of the +young men. A "Better Boys Movement" is also making progress and the +younger boys are becoming interested in canning and farming as well as +being cared for in their sports and games. + +No sketch of this woman's work should close without mention of her +activities for the nation at large. Red Cross work or a Liberty Loan +drive has alike called forth her interest and her energy. She has +appeared on some great occasions and before distinguished audiences, +such as that for instance in the Belasco Theatre in Washington in +December, 1917, when on a noteworthy patriotic occasion she was the only +representative of her race to speak. + +Her girls have gone into many spheres of life and have regularly made +themselves useful and desirable. Nearly two hundred are now annually +enrolled at the school. The demand for them as teachers, seamstresses, +or cooks far exceeds the supply. In great homes and humble, in country +or in town, in Daytona or elsewhere--North, South, East, West--they +remember the motto of their teacher and of the Master of all, "Not to be +ministered unto but to minister;" and year after year they accomplish +better and better things for the school that they love so well and +through it for the Kingdom of God. + + * * * * * + +Two thousand years ago the Savior of Mankind walked upon the earth, a +man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and the people hid as it were +their faces from him. But one day he went into the home of a Pharisee +and sat him down to meat. And a woman of the city, when she knew that +Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of +ointment, exceeding precious, and began to wash his feet with her tears, +and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and +anointed them with the ointment. And there were some that had +indignation among themselves, and said, Why was this waste of the +ointment made? But Jesus said, Let her alone. She hath wrought a good +work on me. She hath done what she could. Verily, I say unto you, +Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, +this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her. + +To-day as well as centuries ago the Christ is before us, around us, +waiting. We do not always know him, for he appears in disguise, as a +little orphan, or a sick old woman, or even perhaps as some one of high +estate but in need of prayer. Let us do what we can. Let each one prove +herself an earnest follower. To such end is the effort of Mary McLeod +Bethune; and as we think of all that she has done and is doing let us +for our own selves once more recall the beautiful words of Sister Moore: +"There is no place too lowly or dark for our feet to enter, and no place +so high and bright but it needs the touch of the light that we carry +from the Cross." + + + + +[Illustration: MARY CHURCH TERRELL] + + + + +MARY CHURCH TERRELL + + + + +VI. + +MARY CHURCH TERRELL + + +With the increasingly complex problems of American civilization, woman +is being called on in ways before undreamed of to bear a share in great +public burdens. The recent great war has demonstrated anew the part that +she is to play in our factories, our relief work, our religious +organizations--in all the activities of our social and industrial life. +The broadening basis of the suffrage in some states and the election of +a woman to a seat in Congress have also emphasized the fact that in the +new day woman as well as man will have to bear the larger +responsibilities of citizenship. In all this intense life the Negro +woman has taken a part, and she will have to do still more in the +future. Even before the Civil War there were women of the race who +labored, sometimes in large ways, for the influencing of sentiment and +the salvation of their people. In the present period of our country's +history new problems arise, sometimes even more delicate than those that +went before them and even more difficult of solution--problems of +education, readjustment, and of the proper moulding of public opinion. +They call for keen intelligence, broad information, rich culture, and +the ability to meet men and women of other races and other countries on +the broad plane of cosmopolitanism. In public life and in the higher +graces of society no woman of the race has commanded more attention from +the American and the international public than Mary Church Terrell. + +The life of this woman is an example of the possibilities not only of +Negro but of American womanhood. She has appeared on platforms with men +and women of other races, sometimes sturdy opponents on public +questions, and more than held her own. She has attended an international +congress in Europe and surpassed all the other women from her country in +her ability to address audiences in languages other than English. With +all this she has never forgotten the religious impulse that is so strong +in the heart of her people and that ultimately is to play so large a +part in their advancement. One admirer of her culture has said, "She +should be engaged to travel over the country as a model of good manners +and good English." + +Mary Church was born in Memphis, Tennessee, the daughter of Robert R. +and Louisa Ayres Church. When she was yet very young her parents sent +her to Ohio to be educated, and here she remained until she was +graduated from the classical course in 1884. Then for two years she +taught at Wilberforce University in Ohio, and for one year more in a +high school in Washington. Desirous of broadening her attainments, +however, she now went to Europe for a period of study and travel. She +remained two years, spending the time in France, Switzerland, Germany, +and Italy, generally improving herself in language. On her return she +resumed her work in Washington, and she was offered the registrarship at +Oberlin College, a distinct compliment coming as it did from an +institution of such high standing. She declined the attractive position, +however, because of her approaching marriage to Robert H. Terrell, a +graduate of Harvard College and formerly principal of a high school in +Washington, who was appointed to a judgeship in the District of Columbia +by President Roosevelt. + +Since her marriage Mrs. Terrell has written much on topics of general +interest and from time to time has formally appeared as a public +lecturer. One of her strongest articles was that on Lynching in the +_North American Review_ for June, 1904. The centenary of the birth of +Harriet Beecher Stowe in 1912 found her unusually well posted on the +life and work of the novelist, so that after she lectured many times on +the subject she brought together the results of her study in an +excellent pamphlet. She was the first president of the National +Association of Colored Women's Clubs, was twice re-elected, and, +declining to serve further, was made honorary president for life. She +was chosen as one of the speakers at the International Congress of Women +held in Berlin in June, 1904. Said the _Washington Post_ of her +performance on this occasion: "The hit of the Congress on the part of +the American delegates was made by Mrs. Mary Church Terrell of +Washington, who delivered one speech in German and another in equally +good French. Mrs. Terrell is a colored woman who appears to have been +beyond every other of our delegates prominent for her ability to make +addresses in other than her own language." In a letter to some of the +largest newspapers in the country Mrs. Ida Husted Harper said further: +"This achievement on the part of a colored woman, added to a fine +appearance and the eloquence of her words, carried the audience by +storm and she had to respond three times to the encores before they were +satisfied. It was more than a personal triumph; it was a triumph for her +race." + +Mrs. Terrell has ever exhibited an intense interest in public affairs. +On the occasion of the discharge of the Negro soldiers in Brownsville, +Texas, in 1906, she at once comprehended the tremendous issues involved +and by her interviews with men high in the nation's life did much for +the improvement of a bad situation. When, some years ago, Congress by +resolution granted power to the Commissioners of the District of +Columbia to appoint two women upon the Board of Education for the public +schools, Mrs. Terrell was one of the women appointed. She served on the +Board for five years with signal ability and unusual success, and on the +occasion of her resignation in 1912 was given a magnificent testimonial +by her fellow-citizens. + +It would be difficult to record all the different things that Mary +Church Terrell has done or the numerous ways in which she has turned +sentiment on the race problem. In recent years she has been drawn more +and more to her own home. She is in constant demand as a speaker, +however, and one or two experiences or incidents must not pass +unremarked. In 1906 she was invited by Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks to come +to Cornell University to deliver her address on the Bright Side of the +Race Problem. She was introduced by Prof. F. A. Fetter of the Department +of Economics. When she had finished her lecture she was greeted by +deafening applause, and then she was surrounded by an eager crowd +desirous of receiving an introduction. One enthusiastic woman exclaimed, +as she warmly shook the speaker's hand, "I was so glad to hear you say +something about the bright side, and--do you know?--every Southern +faculty woman was here." A little later she was the guest of honor at a +reception in the home of Ex-Ambassador Andrew D. White, the first +president of Cornell University. + +Just what Mary Church Terrell means as an inspiration to the young women +of the Negro race one might have seen some years ago if he could have +been present at Spelman Seminary on the occasion of the twenty-fifth +anniversary of this the largest school for Negro girls in the world. She +was preceded on the program by one or two prominent speakers who tried +to take a broad view of the race problem but who were plainly baffled +when they came face to face with Southern prejudice. When Mrs. Terrell +rose to speak the air was tense with eagerness and anxiety. How she +acquitted herself on this occasion, how eloquently she plead, and how +nimbly and delicately she met her opponents' arguments, will never be +forgotten by any one who was privileged to hear her. + +The compliments that have been paid to the eloquence, the grace, the +culture, the tact, and the poise of this woman are endless. She exhibits +exceptional attainments either on or off the platform. Her words bristle +with earnestness and energy, quickly captivating an audience or holding +the closest attention in conversation. Her gestures are frequent, but +always in sympathetic harmony. Her face is inclined to be sad in repose, +but lights quickly and effectively to the soul of whatever subject she +touches. Her voice is singularly clear and free from harsh notes. She +exhibits no apparent effort in speaking, and at once impresses an +audience by her ease, her courage, and her self-abnegation. Through all +her work moreover constantly thrills her great hope for the young men +and women of her race, so many of whom she has personally inspired. + +Such a woman is an asset to her country and an honor to the race to +which she belongs. + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Women of Achievement, by Benjamin Brawley + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WOMEN OF ACHIEVEMENT *** + +***** This file should be named 38783.txt or 38783.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/7/8/38783/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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